The Out Man Squad
by samuraipanda85
Summary: Post ch 690 AU. When a bioterrorism conspiracy from the last war threatens the destruction of the Leaf, it won't be Naruto or Sasuke who saves the village, but the most unlikely heroes of the Konoha 11. Its time for the Odd Men Out to get their just dues. Alternate title: Naruto ANBU Days. Pairings include NaruSaku, LeeTen, ShikaTem, ChoIno, with hints of ShinoHina.
1. Chapter 1 Dropzone

**Author's Note: Thank you so much for reading my first fic. This is normally the point where I ask you to be gentle in your reviews cause it's my first time, but nuts to that. The point of critique is to give constructive feedback and you can't do that while holding my hand. So if you've got to break my heart to point out a glaring flaw, do it. I can take it. I'm a big boy. That being said, reviews that sing my praises are appreciated too. Helps boost my ego and has been linked to speedy releases of chapters.**

 **Balls in your court, reader.**

 **Now please enjoy my first fic…**

 **The Out Man Squad**

~Chapter 1~

Somebody once said something about being the odd man out. Of course, nobody remembers what that was, cause people rarely pay attention to that guy. That's the thing about being the third wheel, no one expects anything of you. It makes your few minutes in the spotlight shine all the brighter. People do know what they say about the brightest candle thou, it gets snuffed out the quickest.

But were getting off track now. It's time to get on with the story, which asks the question what happens when you put four out men on the same team? To answer that, we must first start at 10,000 feet in the air on the back of an ink black falcon. Where four ANBU in training were crouching together to try and stave off the high altitude wind chill.

Below them was their mission site. A dense forest filled with rogue ninja, size and strength of their forces unknown. The whole valley was enclosed within a mountain range. No easy way in or out. For weeks, a local village had been reporting monster sightings at night. After the first kid went missing, the village elder had sent a message to the Leaf asking for help. By the time the nameless genin team arrived, the village had been completely razed. Not a trace was left. This prompted the Leaf village to send an ANBU team and the perfect chance for a squad of ANBU-to-be, to prove themselves.

The team, codenamed Copper squad, had been sent in to investigate the valley and report back any new Intel. So far, they had been flying circles around the valley just below the cloud line for a good three hours. Praying to the Sage that their ink black bird would be mistaken as just another part of the nighttime sky. The kunoichi, codenamed Panda, was keeping her eyes on the treetops below. Waiting for Beetle's "little friends" to signal a safe drop zone. One with the least number of hostiles.

There. Near a break in the tree line just big enough for their ride, Panda spotted a cluster of fireflies dancing about. To the casual observer, they were just a cluster of night time bugs. To the bug user in the group, they were his allies and tools. To Copper squad, they were a landing strip.

Panda patted her team leader, codenamed Copper in honor of leading the squad, to get his attention of the fireflies. Copper nodded in acknowledgement and steered the Ink Bird.

Copper had his Ink bird fly in low, just above the tree line. Unlike his usual ink creations, this one was painted completely black to hide against the black nighttime sky. On a cloudy night like tonight, they were a shadow in the sky.

Butterfly got into position. Seeing an opening in the forest roof he dove in and activated the simpler version of his clan's signature jutsu.

 _Expansion Jutsu!_ He thought.

Instantly the shinobi puffed up like a balloon and bounced like one too as he hit the forest floor rolling.

He immediately leaped to his feet and did a perimeter sweep of the clearing. Sensing no hostile forces, he radioed two blips, giving the all clear.

Copper then landed the ink bird down in the clearing. While Panda sealed the large bird in a scroll in case the team needed to make a fast exit later, Copper briefed the team using military sign language.

 _Butterfly and Beetle will head north, Panda and I will move south. Once you are within radio limit, head west until we reach the other side of the valley and we will rendezvous at the base of the mountain range to plan our next sweep of the valley. Basic ninjutsu only. No clan techniques that could give away our-_

Before Copper could continue he was interrupted by Butterfly. "Oy, Sai, can you just say what you mean? It's hard enough to understand you in the pitch black but I can't see anything out of these stupid masks."

He was met with a quick slap over the head by Panda. "Will you shut it Choji! We're supposed to be covert on this mission. Stealth and silence is key." She quoted from the team's earlier briefing with Lady Tsunade.

"I think you'll find that your yelling is even more counterproductive." Beetle whispered. "Why? Because it creates a loud noise that will alert the enemy to our presence."

Panda glared at Beetle giving off a pissed off look. How she managed that through a mask, Beetle and Copper would never know. "Oh don't you start, Shino." Panda hissed at him. "I swear, I trade one tiresome teammate for a-mfph

Panda was cut off from her low volume rant by Copper (Sai) placing his palm over her mouth. Which was a bit redundant considering that they still had masks on, but he message was clear.

Shut.

Up.

Copper looked at each of the three rookies under him. All three of them had been hailed as the top ninja of their generation. Nearly a year after the 4th Shinobi War, the Konoha 11 had gained notoriety as the pillar of the Leaf's next generation of ninja. While the older generation had struggled to maintain order. The Konoha 11 had carried the Leaf. Each member was beginning to take up leadership positions in the Leaf. This had in turn inspired the rest of its allies. Particularly the younger generations to step up their game. Like it or not, the three ninjas who stood before him were now symbols and inspirations. But they sure as hell weren't acting like ones.

"I should not have to say this. This is not your old teams or their old missions. Even if it was, I'd still be expecting better from all of you. Now keep quiet and pay attention." Sai commanded.

Panda looked down at her feet in disappointment. She knew he was right and it was hard to argue with Sai when he got like this. All commanding and serious like.

Still it just bugged her. Here she was on the last trial of the ANBU exams, away from her old team and all the big shots in her circle of friends. This was her one chance to prove herself worthy of joining the ranks of ANBU. And one of her rare chances to impress her idol Lady Tsunade.

Yet here she is with the rest of the third wheels on the least imposing mission of the lot.

Deep down, she couldn't shake the sense that Tsunade was once again playing favorites with her star pupil and her surrogate son.

Sure the two of them were the most qualified for that particular mission; and their skills were undeniable; plus they definitely had her respect…it's just…she could have handled it too if given the chance.

If that wasn't bad enough, it was nothing compared to the Hokage giving the second highest ranking mission to none other than the squad of missing nin who only recently joined their ranks. Sasuke and his merry band of rogue ninja (the Giant, the Freak, and the Bitch; she liked to call them): who went around doing whatever they damn well pleased for years suddenly decide that they want to join the Leaf and they get sent on the 2nd most important mission the ANBU had to offer for their final exam.

But for Panda and the rest of her squad? They get the crappy reconnaissance mission. They weren't even allowed to engage the enemy should they find them. Just observe and report.

And you just know that they weren't the preferred men for the job. All of them were leftovers meant to fill space. Had the rest of their peers from the Konoha 11 not been pursuing different career paths, they would have been selected for this mission instead.

Hinata would have been selected for her Byakugan so that she could scan the whole valley for any threats and to find their target from the safety of Sai's bird.

Ino, likewise, could have done surveillance with her mind transfer jutsu. Or at least could have kept a mental link going between her squad mates.

And you just know that Shikamaru's genius would have been invaluable to any squad.

But Panda…all she had was an endless supply of kunai to throw at the enemy. How did she measure up?

Even her teammate Lee was considered more of a powerhouse than she was. And he couldn't cast ninjutsu to save his life. Literally.

Thinking of Lee always made Panda's thoughts drift back to her old team. Of her youthfully old sensei Guy and of…

…Neji…

Both of them gave great sacrifices to win the last war. Guy's body would never be the same. He would forever be bound to that wheelchair. He always smiled at his pupils when she and Lee came to visit. But every once in a while when he was certain that neither of them were looking. Panda would see Guy look down at his broken body and be…disappointed? Disgusted? Panda wasn't sure which. She would never ask Lee about it. Her teammate was strong. But she knew how much he looked up to Guy sensei. He saved Guy from the clutches of death. He needed to believe that his sensei was unshakable.

That's the thing about tragedy and loss. It stays with you. Say what you want about the genin squad system. Those three other idiots on your team become your family. And no other squad will ever quite measure up to your first.

Damn it. She wasn't a genin fresh out of the academy anymore. She was a fully realized chunin kunoichi god damn it. Yet here she was about to break that one rule in the shinobi handbook that nobody followed. She didn't cry when she learned about Lee shattering half his limbs. She didn't cry when…Neji…came back with that hole in his chest. When they thought he might die. Or that he would never recover enough to walk without crutches. She had faith that they would recover and that kept the tears at bay. But now Neji was actually dead (from an even larger hole in his chest, go figure) and Guy sensei would never walk again. Her team was torn to shreds and so was her barrier.

So she gave in and let herself have one private moment right there in front of her new teammates.

Thank the Sage for her mask so that none of them would see it.

She let one tear slip while watching Sai continue his briefing in sign language. Choji had removed his mask to see more clearly. And Shino stood perfectly still in his usual stoic manner. Both of them were focusing on everything Sai was saying (or signing).

-Plip-

Panda's eye's widened. She was the undeniable weapons expert of the Konoha 11. She knew the insides, outsides, and in-betweens of every make, model, and version of every kind of ninja weapon you could care to name. And over a dozen you didn't even know existed. She had practiced with kunai in all kinds of conditions to get to know the feel to throwing them in every possible scenario.

Like in the rain for instance.

Her trained ears knew the sound of a drop of rain hitting the side of a kunai the same way Sakura would know the sound of a heart murmur.

The problem was, there was no rain. Only her tears, dripping down her chin.

Conclusion.

Tenten knew that there was a knife hovering over her neck. And no doubt an enemy hidden right behind her.

 **Author's Note: Whoops, did I just finish the first chapter of my first fic with a cliffhanger?**

 **I think I f*cking did! I know what'll fix that thou…**

 **A flashback chapter!**

 **AHHAHAHAHAHAHAA!**


	2. Chapter 2 Cloak and Dagger Nonsense

**Author's Note: Now before anyone gets all uppity and self-righteous. Let me tell you that it is clearly stated on my bio what my preferences are. So if these next few paragraphs offend you, I just want you to know that I would stop reading too if the situations were reversed. The reason I'm being so vague about it is because it has next to nothing to do with the actual story. With that in mind. Enjoy.**

~Chapter 2~

5 Days ago, in the Hokage's office.

Eleven ninja stood before the Hokage. Each a familiar face and eager to receive their newest mission.

Among them were some of the most famous young ninjas of the Leaf. Naruto Uzumaki, Sakura Haruno, Sasuke Uchiha, Kiba Inuzuka, Shino Aburame, Rock Lee, Tenten, and Choji Akimichi. As well as newly registered Leaf ninja Karin Uzumaki, Suigetsu, and Juugo. Each had volunteered in an experimental promotion trial. The ANBU exams.

Unknown to most of the civilian and even the ninja population, the ANBU had no prerequisites for joining. Any ranked ninja, or even a civilian could join their ranks. So long as they were deemed worthy. Becoming a member of the ANBU did have a pleasant side effect. Immediate promotion to Jounin. A loophole normally overlooked since most ninja wouldn't dare tryout for ANBU until after they had made Jounin rank. Normally to become a Jounin one would have to pass the Chunin exams (no easy feat) then after years of service, be promoted by recommendation from a superior officer. The ANBU exams skipped over those stages entirely. Making them ideal for powerhouses like Sasuke and Naruto to not have to compete in the Chunin exams which would be far beneath their demi-god levels. It also meant that new comers like the Taka trio could skip over the dull genin and chunin stages to a point that was more suited to their skill levels. Of course, they still had to pass the ANBU exams. Which had proven extremely difficult in their own right.

The first month had them trekking through one inhospitable wasteland after another. All to test their survival instincts. The second had them live amongst the civilians in a remote village, all the while trying to hide in plain sight from the exam proctors. Now they faced their third and final test. A mission, supervised by an ANBU captain.

"Alright everyone. Here is your final exam of the ANBU exam. I want to reiterate to you all that you passing or failing these exams is completely arbitrary. You all could have failed in the very first exam and wouldn't even know it. So it is imperative that you bring your A game on this one. This is your last chance to impress us, or more accurately, your ANBU captains."

Tsunade paused to let the three captains step forward to make themselves known to the cadets.

On Tsunade's right stood two ANBU males that looked to be in their thirties with fairly tan skin (or at least from what could be seen from their full body gear and masks. One had a dog mask on with grey spiky hair sticking out. The other had a similar dog mask but with more curling waves painted on the face. On her left stood Suizune holding Tonton, further on stood the third ANBU captain. A much younger and paler looking ninja wearing a hawk mask. The ANBU applicants all relaxed a bit when they all realized just who these captains were.

"Since you all no doubt know who they are, we'll cut the cloak and dagger stuff for now."

The men took it as their excuse to remove their masks. Revealing themselves to be none other than- "Kakashi-sensei, Yamato, and Sai. Wow, I totally didn't see that coming." Naruto sarcastically proclaimed. To which his girlfriend bopped him over the head. "Hush up Baka and be respectful." She couldn't help but smirk at her boyfriend's little joke thou.

"Nee, Sakura-chan, you're so mean sometimes." Naruto fake pouted.

"Only to you, Baka." She smirked at him.

Naruto raised an eyebrow as if to dare Sakura to call him a Baka further.

"Ahem." Everyone coughed aloud.

Naruto and Sakura were snapped back into reality where they remembered that they weren't the only two people in the room. Honestly it had been like this for months. Ever since the two of them had started dating they had subjected everyone to their lovey dovey crap.

To the rest of the village they were the Leaf's number 1 power couple. The hero of the war and the head medic-to-be. Everywhere they went they could soon be trusted to be holding hands, followed by whispers of sweet nothings that would make even the most stoic of eavesdroppers blush, followed by passionate make out sessions. They were the poster couple to what Guy would call the Springtime of Youth.

To their circle of friends and mentors, the couple had long stopped being adorable and now hinged on annoying. Having to see this at every social gathering became excruciating, especially since most of the remaining Konoha 11 remained single (save for Shikamaru, till the break-up of course). They all knew that if no one stopped them, they might end up having sex on the Hokage's desk. Witnesses be damned.

"Can we get back on track please?" The Hokage not too subtly asked. Naruto and Sakura turned their heads down facing away from one another. Keeping their mouths shut and their thoughts private. "Ok then."

"For the past 9 months our spy network has been hearing rumors of quote, monsters, lurking in the Valley of Teacups. The valley is named so, because of its geography. The entire valley is one giant crater. The mountain range encircles the entire valley, creating a natural barrier from storms and invaders. The valley is inhabited by a small village of less than 100 civilians. The valley itself has no unique resources or strategic value. So the villagers have enjoyed long periods of peace. Even so, the monster rumors only had them spooked until the first child went missing. That is when the village elder, Ichigo Rein, sent a request to our village for assistance. At the time, I considered the monster rumor to be pack of wild animals cloaked in superstition and sent genin team 13 to investigate. When they arrived at the village they found nothing. Not a single trace of the village was left. Not a building, hut or shack. Just open dirt fields with the occasional scorch mark. The village had been razed to the ground in the week it took us to respond to their plea."

Tsunade paused to let that sink in. Even to veterans of an all be it brief war, hearing about an entire village being destroyed never stops sending a sinking feeling down into the pit of your stomach.

"Obviously no animals could do that to an entire village. Even for a faction of rogue bandits. Being so thorough as to tear down a village while leaving no trace takes planning and a fairly large workforce."

Everyone's gears were turning trying to figure out answers. Most of them wishing that Shikamaru were still with them. He probably would have finished deciphering the answer by now.

"That's not the worst of it thou." She stated.

 _Of course…_ everyone thought to themselves.

"We suspect that whoever did this was using curse marks."

That got everyone's attention. The curse marks were a forbidden jutsu developed by none other than the snake sannin Orochimaru. Each brought the user under the caster's control. In return, the curse mark user was granted increased strength and chakra levels while making them more aggressive and dangerous. In advanced stages, the users could transform into monster like forms. Further increasing their strength and stamina while giving them animal like qualities in some instances.

"What makes you think that m'lady?" Tenten piped up.

"A discarded forearm found near the village site was recovered by the jounin instructor." Sakura began, answering for Lady Tsunade. "While the wounded area did indicate puncture marks consistent with an animal like a wolf. It was made post mortem judging by the blood splatter. The tattoos also indicate the owner was not a villager. Most notable however, is the muscle strain shown on the arm. Which is consistent of a long term user of the curse mark's second state." Sakura finished proudly as Tsunade and Naruto looked upon her with pride.

"That's impossible." Suigetsu stated. "We killed off all those curse mark bastards back at the base when we busted your ass outta jail Juugo."

Juugo, who was the first curse mark user and the base test subject for Orochimaru's experiments in that field could only nod as memories of screaming blood soaked walls filled his memory. Then memories of birds put a small smile on his face.

"It's not impossible." Sasuke interjected. "We could have easily let several slip by us on our way to pick up Juugo. Plus Orochimaru kept curse mark users in all his based around the world. There is no way we could account for them all."

Karin then made some coo about how smart and sexy Sasuke was, which Sasuke ignored.

Tsunade took the floor once again, "Which leads us to your mission." Tsunade then handed out dossiers of the mission briefing to the eleven ninja as well as their commanders.

"If curse marks are involved, then there are only two souls on Earth with the expertise to control them or create more. Orochimaru…and Kabuto. Both have gone missing since the end of the 4th Shinobi War. Two of your teams will each be assigned to hunt one of them down and discover any and all connections they have to the missing village. The remaining team will be sent to the Valley of Teacups to further investigate the area and hopefully discover the missing villagers."

Tsunade could see a look of determination across all her ninjas' faces.

"The lot of you will be split into three squads to tackle the three targets of this mission. Each squad will be given an ANBU captain as a squad leader and assigned a codename to last throughout the mission. You will find your squad placement inside your dossier."

"Squad 1 will be Gold Squad, led by Yamato. You will be in charge of tracking down Orochimaru and capturing him for further interrogation. Elimination is authorized."

Tsunade said that last part with some strain. Not many caught it, but Sakura and Suizune did. They both knew that to Tsunade, Orochimaru was an evil snake, but he was also her last remaining teammate. He had saved her life back during the war. A tiny part of her had hoped that he had turned over a new leaf. At least enough so that the two of them would no longer have to be enemies.

"Squad 2 will be Silver Squad, led by Kakashi. You will be in charge of tracking down Kabuto. The same rules apply for him. Kill or capture."

"Squad 3 will be Copper Squad, led by Sai. You will head out to the Valley of Teacups and continue the investigation. You will be sending daily intel reports. This mission will be covert. Stealth and silence will be key. There is a chance that if Orochimaru or Kabuto is behind this that they will be in the valley overseeing some new laboratory they have set up. Gold and Silver Squads will be checking out the far more likely bases that the two of them would work out of."

By now the shinobi had divided themselves into their squads. In Gold Squad was Naruto, Sakura, Kiba, and Lee. In Silver Squad was Sasuke, Karin, Suigetsu, and Juugo. In Copper Squad was Shino, Choji, and Tenten.

Tsunade then walked over to the table with the cloth laid over it and pulled it away for a dramatic reveal. Place along the table were eleven ANBU masks, each sporting a different animal design. Along with a set of standard ANBU gear. "And here are your ANBU uniforms complete with your requested mask design."

The Lady Hokage's statement was met with whoops of joys as the young shinobi gathered around the table to pick up their gear. Naruto had received a fox mask. Sakura, a vixen mask (a fox mask with pink waves). Kiba went with a red dog mask. Lee had a green dragon mask. Sasuke had a black hawk mask. Karin had a red cat mask. Suigetsu had a blue shark mask. Juugo had a yellow canary mask. Shino had a blue beetle mask. Tenten went with a Panda mask that she found cute for some odd reason. Choji had requested a bear mask but instead got, "…a butterfly?"

He looked at the mask equal parts shocked and offended. Right there on a mask meant to inspire terror in his enemies that he was an assassin, a shadow of the night, was a baby blue butterfly right smack dab in the middle of where his face was supposed to be. "You can't be serious. No offense Lady Hokage but I think there was some kind of mix up. I requested a bear design for my ANBU mask."

"Yeah I'm sorry Choji, but we ran out."

Behind Choji, Naruto and Kiba were trying to hold back their giggles. Suigetsu was more outspoken with how funny and unmanly he found Choji's mask. And Choji could swear he felt Sasuke smirking from behind his back. But before Lee could jump in and explain to Choji about how youthful the butterfly is, he was cut off by Tenten. "Hey ah, Choji, do you maybe want to trade masks? I mean a Panda is kinda like a bear and all. Plus I don't mind a butterfly so- "No trading codenames!" Tsunade cut her off. "Choji, you are testing to become a Jounin and beyond. If you can't handle a stupid little codename then you need to find another line of work. Succeed in this mission and maybe I'll consider changing your codename."

Choji looked like he was about to pout but kept his emotions in check to save what dignity he had left. "It's fine. Thank you though, Tenten…" He sighed and slipped on his butterfly mask which was of course one size too small. The rest of his peers followed suit. Donning their new identities.

Everyone's masks fit like a glove. Providing just enough space for them to breathe. The eye holes, while appearing narrow from the outside, actually didn't restrict the ninja's field of vision at all.

"Sasuke…Hey Sasuke…" Naruto spoke through the mask, his voice resonating giving it a deep tone.

"What?" Replied Sasuke with a muffled tone.

Naruto made booming deep breathes, "Sasuke…I…AM YOUR FATHER!"

Everyone looked Naruto's way, trying to figure out what the hell he was talking about. Till they heard Sasuke reply back, "That's not true…that's impossible…" He smirked to himself behind the mask.

"SEARCH YOUR FEELINGS. YOU KNOW IT TO BE TRUE."

"Are you quoting from that dumb movie you two saw!?"

"Oh come on Sakura, it's an awesome movie, if you'd just let me take you…"

"No way. I'm tired of fixing up your arm every time the two of you play Space Wars or whatever."

While Naruto tried to correct Sakura on the title of the movie no one cares about, Shino was busy admiring his own mask. And the coming mission where he would have a chance to prove himself worthy of joining the ANBU.

 **Author's Notes: How many references did YOU catch? And to answer your question. Yes, Yukie Fujikaze did star as Princess Leia. Sasuke also totally cried when Hans was frozen in carbonite. Although Naruto still ships Leia with Luke.**


	3. Chapter 3 Hammer Down

**Author's Note: Longest chapter so far. Damn near 8 pages. Might not seem like much, but I was told to write more this summer by my professors so every new chapter is another milestone for me.**

 **Enjoy.**

~Chapter 3~

It was an unspoken rule in sparring matches that a kunai to the throat meant a loss for whomever wasn't holding the knife, and for good reason. There weren't many options for defending or countering against it. The number of options varied based on the skills of the two ninjas involved in that particular scenario and fortunately, she knew them all. TenTen was a chūnin going on jōnin rank against a foe with unknown skills who had her cornered.

Not to say that her teammates were preoccupied with her enemy's teammates. If her opponent was worth half his salt he would be ready to slit her throat before she could finish signaling for help. Not five yards away from her squad and she was on her own, she would have to take a gamble…

Focusing chakra to her feet was her first step and thanks to Sai's briefing, she was already in a crouched position ready to spring forward if necessary. Before she could second guess herself, Tenten shifted her body weight backwards into her attacker simultaneously tucking her head in so that her chin was touching her chest, keeping her neck safe. Then, she lunged herself backwards into her attacker's arms while throwing her own hands up to grab his weapon, thus the momentum knocked the both of them back and sent each tumbling over one another into the bushes. Tenten, however, managed to flip herself on top of her assailant and put his kunai arm in a judo hold. With her immediate threat neutralized, Tenten snapped her head facing her team to shout at them:

"AMBUSH!"

~break~

Chōji had since removed his too small baby blue butterfly mask in order to better see Sai's commands. It was just as well since he was already wearing a black mask with the ninja equivalent of under armor underneath to deal with the evening wind chill. Why the ANBU bothered with such things was beyond Chōji as all their masks were primarily white and stood out against the nighttime forest as well as anything. His train of thought was quickly derailed when he heard a scuffle coming from Tenten's direction followed by _Panda_ shouting out that they were under attack. And just like that, the switch was flipped and a dozen years of training kicked in. Chōji leapt from his side just in time to dodge a hail of kunai and shuriken whereas Sai and Shino weren't so lucky, at least that's what Chōji initially thought before seeing the two of them turning into ink and a swarm of beetles.

There was no time to react, only to act so Chōji clapped his hands together to form his family's signature jutsu, this time only focusing the chakra to his right arm instead of his torso. His arm inflated like a balloon, this time not only increasing in size, but in density turning his right fist into a large mallet.

The only problem was that he couldn't spot an enemy to hit. He kept moving though, not wanting to turn himself into an easy target. Truth be told he was never the best at sensing other's chakra because that was his female teammate's job, Ino. Now, he was running around the woods blind as a bat while the sounds of battle picked up all around him, the enemy could be five feet away and he wouldn't know it. Come to think of it, so could his allies.

"DIE!"

 _Thank the Sage for newbies._ Chōji thought.

With his inflated hand, Chōji performed a quick counter to the idiot behind him celebrating stabbing Chōji in the back by loudly screaming it aloud.

The green rogue was thrown to the ground by his own momentum, where Chōji immediately pounded him in the back of his bald head with an enlarged fist. His face ate the dirt and that was one enemy down.

The old Chōji might have reveled in his one hit KO for a bit but this was war veteran Chōji, he knew the battle was far from over and he needed to fight his next opponent. The problem was, the ANBU squad member was back to square one for he still couldn't see any other threats.

The sounds of fighting were all around him, swords and kunai clashing, shuriken imbedding themselves into tree trunks, scampering feet kicking up dirt, leaves, and twigs. And of course the sounds of men crying out in agony but none of them sounded like his comrades. That was hardly a comfort when Chōji knew he was basically standing around being useless. The Akimichi heir apparent never was the best at sensing other people's chakra because he was the steamroller on his old team. His other teammates like Ino would sense where the enemies were and Chōji would smash everything in that general direction. Left on his own his was a loveable brute fumbling in the darkness. Had Ino and Shikamaru been here, the three of them could have done their Ino-Shika-Cho Shadow Yo-Yo technique and taken out the lot of the engaging enemies.

Chōji felt movement behind him and snapped around to deliver another jutsu powered punch, ending in hitting up a tree. The sheer force of the blow blew the trunk in half, knocking the whole thing down. Above him, Chōji could hear a handful of men scattering to other branches to continue sniping Chōji and the rest of Copper squad, no doubt about that.

 _It's something, but I'm still not doing as much as I could!_

He was tempted to just enlarge his whole body and belly flop the battlefield. But the enemy could still easily evade his attack and more importantly he could accidently hurt his friends. Besides, they were still on a stealth mission and body-slamming a forest when you're the size of the Hokage tower would not be classified as stealthy.

The best he could do would be to react to the attacks as they came which proved to be a poor strategy when Chōji felt the ice cold metal of a kunai impale itself into his upper back.

~break~

Shino heard an outcry coming from about fifty yards, at ten O'clock. The voice could only be Chōji's and judging from the pitch, whatever happened had caught Chōji off-guard. Being the sensor type in his old squad of trackers, Shino had developed a tendency to know exactly where an individual was located based off of sound and chakra sensing. While not at the same level as Kiba and Hinata in term of smell, hearing, and vision respectively the bug user had a knack for keeping track of multiple chakra signatures, seeing as it had been a requirement for him to utilize his clan's signature jutsu effectively. It was a skill he wished the rest of his new teammates shared as they were quite literally surrounded and fumbling about in the dark.

The enemy had succeeded in concealing their chakra signatures enough to stage an ambush. They had positioned snipers in key locations with enough ground forces to keep their targets pre-occupied. How they had prepared such an elaborate ambush so quickly and precisely baffled Shino. Perhaps they had advanced sensor types working with them which was odd considering that their ninjutsu and taijutsu skills were subpar at best. Even Shino who never prided himself on his close-combat skills was quite easily holding his own against their overwhelming numbers. When Shino had first encountered a ground troop he had expected someone of mid chūnin level given how fast their response time was to discovering Copper squad's infiltration. Especially after all the pre-cautions they had taken. He met his opponent's kunai assault with his own kunai in kind. Shino remembered that Sai had ordered Copper squad to keep from using any clan specific jutsu.

The two traded blows for a while. Shino meeting his foe's strikes and stabs with ripostes and parries until Shino realized that his enemy was severely below his league and so he made one final counter to disarm his opponent and then made a quick jab at his windpipe to knock him out. He was attacked almost immediately by another thug wielding a kunai and employing the tactics of a fresh from the Academy genin. Shino didn't play around with this one and employed the same advanced parry he used before and subdued the enemy with ease. The same thing kept happening with all the enemy ninja he faced.

 _This doesn't make sense. They set the perfect trap and we damn near fell for it like amateurs but their complete lack of skill puts us at an advantage. They haven't used any real ninjutsu yet so the possibility that they have sensor units that could pinpoint our exactly landing point in time to prepare this ambush is very doubtful, unless they have an inside man who tipped them off about our arrival or they got extremely lucky or we just got extremely unlucky. Either way, the tactics they employed were beyond the level of rogue ninja like their fighting skills indicated. They could have been organized by a more skillful leader, a rogue jōnin at least. But who?_

BOOM!

Shino's thoughts were interrupted by the sound of gale force winds ripping through the trees. Shattering them like they were twigs. Before he could think, a mini tidal wave crashed through some more trees, taking a few unlucky grunts with it, then a fire ball the diameter of a person went sailing through the tree tops setting them ablaze while several bodies fell to the ground below.

Shino didn't need to sense the incoming chakra source, he already knew that that was his comrade, Panda/Tenten who was utilizing her newest weapon: the Elemental Fan.

A gift from the Lightning Village (well she says gift, but actually she had grown attached to the weapon after fighting with it on the beach front during the 4th War and then she promised several favors to Naruto who in turn called in favors with the Raikage and Killer Bee to let her keep the sacred weapon of the Sage of Six Paths). It was a powerful artifact that sent out bursts of 5 different elemental attacks with each swing. The weapon was crazy powerful and damn effective against crowds but it drained the user's chakra almost instantly. To anyone who wasn't a jinchūriki or a Kage who had a particularly hearty breakfast that morning, the fan was all but useless but Tenten had been going through extensive training with the fan for the past several months pushing herself to the limits of chakra exhaustion so often that even Lee had at one time suggested that she take a break. It had paid off, though. Although she was nowhere near the level of say Naruto in terms of chakra reserves she had increased her own reserves dramatically and had learned to use them effectively. Now, she could pull of nearly 50 swings before succumbing to chakra exhaustion which explained why she was swinging freely at any direction she could think of.

 _She's not even aiming at anything._ Shino thought before jumping out of the way of a lightning blast unknowingly aimed at him. It did, however, take out the fool who had been trying to sneak up behind Shino for the last ten seconds.

 _We need to end this battle quickly. If we haven't already blown our cover reinforcements are surely on their way._

Shino looked closer at Tenten's blasts and noticed only a few of them actually hitting any enemies. Most of them hit nothing. The rogues may have been rank amateurs, but even they knew to stick to the shadows and avoid the crazy kunoichi with the magic fan.

 _She still can't see them._

Even with the trees set on fire, there were still too many of them to provide enough shadows to hide in. And Tenten's water jutsu were putting out as many fires as the fan started.

 _Where the hell is Sai? He should have ordered a retreat so that we can regroup and plan our next strategy._

Ever since the battle started Shino had only been sensing brief windows of Sai's chakra, followed by one of the enemy's chakra being snuffed out. _No doubt he's utilizing his Root training._ Shino thought. It barely helped, though; because their team was still vastly outnumbered.

"HUMAN BULLET TANK!"

Shino heard a very-welcomed war cry as Chōji used one of his clan's signature techniques to turn himself into a human pinball of death. He rolled right past Shino like an unstoppable juggernaut tearing up the landscape and knocking ninjas aside like they were human bowling pins. It wasn't long before the enemy finally figured out how to steer clear of Chōji's rampage. They needed a plan. If only they could see… Another rogue ninja ran out on the darkness directly into Shino's line of sight it seemed for the sole purpose of interrupting his train of thought. The man was armed with, oddly, a shovel standing there with a look of terror on his face like he couldn't believe what he was doing either.

Shino had run out of patience and choose to put this guy down quick. As the thug swung this shovel at Shino, he used the momentum of the swing to yank the shovel out of the guy's hand and grabbed his arm and spun him face first into a tree that had completely been engulfed in flames. The man bounced off, but not without getting a face full of burning tree first.

 _That's it!_ He realized.

Immediately, Shino leaped to the nearby branches to gain some altitude then concentrated his chakra to call upon the aid of a specific species of insect he had at his disposal. Not many people realized this, but Shino's Aburame clan didn't just train insects and let them nest inside their bodies. They imposed their will upon them through mental commands, similar to Ino Yamanaka's clan's mental jutsu. But instead of probing or controlling the minds of humans and animals, the Aburame controlled insects meaning that Shino could control select groups of insects with his thoughts alone.

So he continued concentrating on the bugs that would be most helpful in this situation. Sai had ordered them to stick to non-recognizable jutsu, but the situation called for some advanced ninjutsu.

Shino finished issuing commands and released his swarm.

Like an explosion of fairy dust, hundreds of fireflies flew outward in all directions, seeking hostile targets to latch on too.

Within seconds Shino could hear it working. "What the fuck is with all these damn bugs? Get off of me!"

As if this wasn't easy enough, Shino looked up to see three snipers perched on top of branches ready to rain kunai and shuriken down upon him all his mates, not that they hadn't been trying that for the last five minutes, but hey. Before, they were completely hidden in the shadows and now they had dozens of bright fireflies buzzing around their heads or resting on their clothes making them stand out quite nicely in the pitch black forest.

 _Like a freakin' Christmas tree._ Shino commented in his head as he threw three well aimed kunai at the hearts of his three would be snipers. Each of them were a direct hit. Hearing those bodies fall and hit the ground in perfect harmony was just so satisfying. It seemed that the rest of his teammates soon caught on to his clever plan.

Tenten started aiming her shots more precisely. "Like freakin' Christmas trees!" She yelled.

Chōji had ended his Human Bullet Tank technique and had enlarged both his hands to pick up a discarded tree, which he used like a baseball bat to swat at the remaining enemy ninja still perched on the treetops. "Here's payback for what you did to my ass!" He shouted.

Sai was still nowhere to be found, but it didn't matter as the three of them managed to route all of the enemy combatants in less than a minute now that they could see them clearly.

In no time at all, the three chūnin had all the remaining enemy ninja tied up to the still standing trees and were feeling pretty good about themselves.

"We showed them what's what!" Tenten declared.

"Yeah," Chōji agreed while reaching for his backside. "And not a-Humph!-scratch on us." Chōji pulled out one of the enemy's kunai, then tossed it aside.

"Oh my god Chō- _Butterfly_ … Chōji. Are you wounded?" Tenten asked in concern.

"It's nothing _Panda_ , it's just a scratch." Chōji replied in earnest, sighing all the while.

"Let me check it anyway. Who knows, those idiots might have used poison."

"No, no! It's just embarrassing, that's all…"

" _Butterfly_ ," Shino interjected. "If the kunai was poisoned and penetrated your skin in your back the poison could easily enter your blood stream through your spinal column. We need to check it."

"It didn't penetrate my back, _Beetle_. It penetrated my… ass…" Chōji replied, embarrassed that he tried to throw Shino's words back at him.

Everywhere around them the rogue ninja that were still conscious and eavesdropping were snickering to themselves.

"Shut up!" Tenten commanded. Which kept the rogues quiet, but couldn't stop them from smirking at their captor's expense.

"Just let me double check to make sure it isn't foaming or green. I'm no medic nin, but I've got plenty of experience patching up Team Guy."

Chōji realized that he wasn't going to get out of this mission with his dignity intact and proceeded to drop his pants.

That's when Sai appeared out of the shadows wearing one of his rare glimpses of emotion. Sai looked at all of them like they had come into his house and took a shit on his rug.

"What the hell are you three doing? I gave you all clear instructions that we are too flee in the face of enemy encounters. Instead I find all of you facing down an entire platoon!"

Everyone was blown back at Sai's venomous statement. He was normally smiling that fake smile of his and making small dick jokes about Naruto's size. To have him talk down to all of them like that when they were all in the same age group was jarring. Tenten, however, was the first to recover from the shock.

"What were _we_ doing? _We_ were fighting the bad guys while you were off doing Lord knows what!"

"I was regrouping at the spot 300 yards east of the Willow tree as I instructed all of you to do in case of an enemy encounter. I gave very clear instructions during the briefing."

Now it was Chōji's turn to retort (right after he pulled up his pants). "We couldn't understand you. Between the masks and the pitch black darkness, nobody could read your hand signs."

"You would have understood the orders if you had been paying attention. If you need orders repeated at you to fully understand them then you tell your superior officer."

"There was no time for repeats! We were under attack. Why didn't you just issue the orders verbally on the ride here?"

"It doesn't matter when I issue the orders. What matters is that you follow them. As it stands you have disobeyed standing orders made by your squad leader and by your Kage. This was supposed to be a reconnaissance mission; observe and report. We were not green lit to engage the enemy. Instead, the three of you create a mini war in the forest. I could hear you shouting from the Willow tree."

Chōji and Tenten looked down in disappointment of themselves.

"And what's worse is that you Chōji, disobeyed my direct order of not using any infamous clan jutsu, jutsu that can be easily linked back to our village. We will have to eliminate everyone now."

"Whoa, hey, hold on!" Tenten shouted, clearly outraged at what Sai was saying. "We can't do that. There are twenty guys here and they're all subdued. They're our prisoners!"

"They are not prisoners. This isn't war. This is ANBU and they are witnesses."

Tenten and Chōji couldn't quite find the words to retort against Sai and that is because technically, he was right. Shino was busy contemplating about how new this was to all of them, sure they had all been ninjas since the age of twelve. Most of them had grown up surrounded by this lifestyle. Chōji and Shino had been raised in noteworthy ninja clans, and Sai had been trained even earlier by Root; an underground Black Ops unit operating in secret outside of the Hokage's jurisdiction but it had been disbanded a year after the death of Danzō. Only Tenten could have claimed to have what the civilian population would call a normal childhood. Either way, the three of them still had more than enough experience in killing, but they never executed prisoners in cold blood. Not even during the 4th Shinobi War had they killed any POWs. Not that there had been any chance to in the first place since the whole war had been fought against these White Zetsu clones which were humanoid looking plant warriors with bone white skin that were made up of the 1st Hokage's cells and the reanimated corpses of the Shinobi Alliance's most infamous late ninjas. Needless to say, there weren't any enemy soldiers to show mercy too. Just a whole bunch of monsters to mercilessly slaughter. There were standing orders to capture Kabuto to have him undo the Reanimation Jutsu, but that objective had been fulfilled by an unknown ally who the Alliance brass had later revealed to be Sasuke Uchiha.

Strangely enough, it was one of the captives who broke the silence. "Hey now, come on, you don't really have to kill us right?"

His buddy beside him quickly pitches in, "Yeah, that's right we don't know nothing about who you are."

"And we especially don't know anything about the Akimichi clan's Expansion jutsu from the Hidden Leaf." Their third friend chimed in. Which caused the two thugs to look at their friend who just realized his mistake with a look of _you dumb fuck._

Sai had an indifferent look on his face as he walked up to the third restrained ninja, grabbed him by his brown hair, and slit his throat as calmly as you would pick an apple.

Before the thug next to him could scream out he felt a glove pressed against his mouth and a damp blade pressed against his neck.

Tenten stepped in though to prevent Sai from dragging the short sword along. "That's enough!"

Sai turned around to face her with an even more terrifying look of anger. "Don't you start Panda. It's bad enough that Butterfly gave away our origin. But your fan no doubt alerted the entire valley to our presence. I'm surprised that we haven't seen reinforcements already. All because you had to go around throwing out elemental attacks like a damn buuji."

"What fan?!" Tenten pulled out the Elemental Fan to hold it up. "Oh, you mean _this_ fan?"

"Are you threatening me?"

"Maybe I am you emotionless bastard."

At this point Shino jumped in between them.

"I shouldn't be surprised by how you acting. Given your previous sensei's habit of overdoing it."

Typical Sai of saving the most insensitive things at the most inopportune times. It was an unspoken rule in the shinobi forces that you could insult someone's mother before you insulted their genin squad leader. Like 'em or not, those S.O.B.s were family and you don't mess with family.

"What did you say?" Tenten threatened.

Shino should have known better, but he needed to intervene, "Tenten, look, just calm down."

"You're taking his side?!" She screeched, unbelieving that Shino wasn't backing her up. Sure he was one of the few in their age group who hadn't lost a mentor over the years (unless you count maternity leave). But to just stand by while Sai insulted Tenten's crippled sensei…

"I'm not taking sides. You both made good points and we all need to keep a level head. So if you'll just put the fan down-

"YOU WANT ME TO PUT THE FAN DOWN?!"

Tenten swung her fan down like some other culture's mystic hammer, unleashing a powerful bolt of lightning that knocked the rest of her squad away like rag dolls.

She stood there panting, surrounded by the charred earth and squad mates laid out on their backs all around her. Butterfly and Beetle looked up tentatively. Both weren't badly hurt, but they knew not to further mess with a woman scorned.

Tenten then realized how she had screwed up and began apologizing for her outburst, but Copper/Sai was having none of it.

He dusted himself off and walked towards Panda, unflinching in the potential risk of another fan assault.

"I officially fail you, Tenten, from the ANBU exams. You and Chōji, for disobeying orders and putting the mission in jeopardy. Neither of you has what it takes. The two of you shall remain hidden in a predetermined location while Beetle and I continue on with the mission. Is that understood?"

The rest of Copper Squad looked on in disbelief. As always though, it was Tenten who regained her voice first. "You know what? Screw you Sai." She turned her heel and re-strapped the Elemental Fan to her back before addressing Butterfly, "Come on Chōji, let's go." Tenten then leaped into the trees and took off. Chōji soon followed behind her without a word.

 **Author's Note: Whelp, things are off to a flying start for Copper squad. What say we check in with Gold and Silver squad next chapter to see how they're doing?**

 **Gotta give a shout out of thanks to two authors on this site. Ghostpoet for betaing this chapter and adding the lines that go over the o's in Chōji. Also to SoleAccord, who provided the Fan Down line for Tenten, as well as the feedback on the two previous chapters. Check 'em both out. They are amazing writers.**


	4. Chapter 4 Gold Squad

**Author's Notes: So I decided to change the main characters listed to Shino, Tenten, Naruto, and Sasuke. Mostly because in this first arc, I realized that half the chapters I thought up involved those two. And after writing up the first 3 chapters I realized that I tended to gravitate towards Shino and Tenten more so than Choji and Sai. Plus Naruto and Sasuke have a more broad appeal. That being said, I hope to focus solely on Copper Squad in the next arc of my story. That's the problem I have with thinking up stories. I can never think up just one, it's always a trilogy of sorts. This might just be a hobby, but I've already thought up a sequel, prequel, and a spin-off for this story. I'm gonna try to finish this story first before getting into that though. Until then, enjoy.**

3 days ago and 100 miles south

The tryout ANBU squad known as Gold Squad was making their way east towards a small out of the way village that would serve as their last stopping point before they reached their mission objective.

The squad leader had taken a page out of a one Shikamaru Nara's handbook and arranged his squad in a single file zig zag formation.

Dog and his canine companion had taken point, their keen senses the best for spotting traps and other dangers.

Gold was behind him, it being the perfect location to relay orders to the rest of the squad through hand gestures and to assess any situation.

Fox had taken up the middle, his techniques were the most suited to a support role should either end of the formation be attacked.

Vixen stayed close behind Fox, ready to jump in and provide medical treatment at a moment notice.

Dragon held up the rear, his taijutsu expertise making him the perfect backup for any situation.

They had been tree hopping for three days straight. Only taking breaks at the insistence of Dog and Gold, seeing as the rest of their squad mates all had extraordinary stamina reserves (except for Dragon, he was naturally a stamina freak).

Upon passing over the river, Gold realized that they were about 1 mile from town and tapped Dog on the shoulder before signaling the rest of the group to stop. Everyone nodded in confirmation and leaped down to a clearing in the trees where they could huddle up in peace.

"Fox?" Gold asked the blonde haired ANBU, who in turn held up his right middle and index finger in front of his mask to concentrate. A few moments passed before he responded back, "I've got no hostile intents for five miles. Except for some mischief happening at what I think is a candy store. Nothing that'll bother us of course."

Vixen looked upon Fox with pride shining through her concealed face while Dragon looked upon his with awe. Dog however was making a mix of a pout and pissed off look from having Fox show off his sensing skills.

"Right. So we can talk freely. Everyone remove your masks." Gold and the rest of his squad did so and revealed themselves to be Yamato, Kiba, Naruto, Sakura, and Lee. Except for Akamaru, who wasn't wearing an ANBU mask because that would be dumb. Although normally the ANBU wouldn't even take a ninja animal with them on a mission, the council had determined that two noses would be better than one on this particular mission in tracking down a certain elusive snake.

As Sakura was removing her mask she caught a certain dumb blonde giving her a lustful look.

"What is it Naruto?" she asked.

"Nothing," he replied. "I just missed seeing your beautiful face."

"Baka," she smirked. "Keep that up and you'll be seeing a lot more of me later."

Kiba groaned and Lee felt embarrassed.

SNAP SNAP

Yamato was determined to nip another round of flirting in the bud and thankfully this caught their attention. "Can I finish the briefing?" His order was met with silence. "Good. As I was saying…" Yamato then unfolded a map and placed it in the center of their circle. "As you can see, we're here, the town we'll be staying at is just a mile away, and over here is where we presume one of Orochimaru's lairs is." Yamato pointed to each location and made a quick twirl with his finger on the last location.

"Tomorrow, before dawn, we'll infiltrate his lair, capture the former sannin, and take him back to the Leaf for further interrogation."

The squad nodded. It was a simple enough plan that was bound to face complications along the way. Given who they were all up against.

Orochimaru was the former snake sannin of the Village Hidden in the Leaves. Now he was known as the missing nin who orchestrated the Sand/Sound Invasion of Konoha, preformed inhumane experiments on live humans, and as the man who killed the Third Hokage. Alongside Tsunade, he was a part of the great sannin Deadlock. Three ninjas who were unrivaled in skill and strength anywhere in the world. For every advantage one had over one of his comrades, another had a counter. They said that the only way to defeat a sannin was to have him face the other two sannin at the same time. That is until the Great and Gallant Toad Sage Jirayia was killed at the hands of Pain, a former student of Jirayia's whom had mastered the Rinnegan. He in turn was defeated by Naruto, a more recent student of Jirayia's. This left the world with only two sannin left. Neither of whom could defeat the other without outside help. Of course, after the Battle of the Buuji in the 4th Shinobi War, three new ninjas had been recognized as the next generation of sannin. Two of which happened to be on this squad.

"Tonight. We will be staying at an inn under the guise of civilians."

"Why not just show up as regular ninjas?" Sakura asked.

"Yeah, they usually give us a discount for staying. Ya know. When we're not breaking their stuff." Naruto added.

"The idea here is not to arouse suspicion. Orochimaru is too cautious not to have informants stationed in the nearby village to alert him about any ninja that comes his way. More to the point, the two of you have gathered quite the reputation after the war. And your whisker marks and pink hair aren't going to help us stay inconspicuous."

"So you two." Yamato pointed at the two love birds. "Hair dye and make up to conceal your more noticeable traits."

Both Naruto and Sakura nodded in understanding, but secretly they both were down about the whole idea. Naruto loved Sakura's pink hair, it was one of her best features, along with her smile, charming forehead, emerald like eyes, toned ass, long legs despite her short figure...  
Sakura was having similar thoughts. Like how Naruto's whisker marks were so distinct and cute. Especially how if you ran your fingers across them he would purr like a fox.

Irregardless, they had a job to do and a mission to complete.

"Right. In order to avoid further suspicion, we'll be entering the village in two parties."

"Sweet." Naruto interjected. "Me and Sakura can go in posed as a married couple."

Sakura blushed at Naruto's proposal. Her mind wandered to the thought of marriage with her favorite blonde idiot. The proposal, the wedding, the honeymoon, the pitter patter of tiny feet.  
She was about to scold Naruto about how it was too early for them to be thinking about those kinds of things when Yamato beat her to the punch.

"Actually, to avoid distractions I was planning on having Sakura go in on her own posed as a lone traveler. The rest of us guys would go in together as a Carpenter father and his three sons looking for work.

The members of Gold squad then looked around amongst themselves at the square faced, diamond shaped brown eyed, brown haired ANBU captain who would pose as the father to a tan skinned, round faced, blue eyed blonde; a wild brown haired man with slits for pupils; and a bowl cut brunette with round eyes like ping pong balls.

"We'll make it work." Yamato assured them.

"But wait." Kiba spoke up. "Even with Sakura gone, we'd still be rolling into town in 4 man pack. Standard ninja squad size."

"True, and normally we would just be sticking to roughing it on ANBU missions, but we may have to go up against one of the sannin tomorrow so we might as well get a good night's rest tonight. And I don't know about the rest of you, but camping out in the sticks is not my idea of a good night's sleep. Not when there is an inn nearby."

This prompted excitement amongst the group. After three days of constant sprinting through the forest, stopping only to eat and catch their breath, the thought of real food, hot baths, and clean sheets was too good to be true. They could get the dirt and grime off of their sweaty bodies. They could fill their bellies with succulent juicy meats marinated in delectable sauces with sides of grilled vegetables and a variety of drinks. None of this pre-packaged dry foods crap with straight up water taken from a stream and purified with those tablets that make the water taste like plastic.

Yamato looked at his squad and saw the general looks of drooling at the mouth each of them shared. Except for Sakura, who was a lady and had to look dignified.

"If there are no more complaints. We'll seal our ninja gear into scrolls and change into our civies here. Kiba, have Akamaru stay hidden in the woods until tomorrow morning. No need to attract more attention than necessary. And Sakura, you'll go in first. The rest of us will move in a few hours later. We'll rendezvous back here at 0300 hours to go over mission specifics before the assault on Orochimaru's lair. So turn in early. Any questions?"

Gold squad remain silent and complacent, which satisfied Yamato to no end.

"Good, phase 1 of the mission is completed."

The ANBU applicants took this as their excuse to break formation and begin preparing for phase 2: infiltrating the village incognito.

Kiba and Lee stripped themselves of their ninja gear and stowed it away in sealing scrolls (Kiba had to do the sealing for Lee). While Sakura and Naruto made their way over to the river to dye their hair and apply their make-up. Yamato pulled out 5 rug sacks he had stuffed in his backpack, each of them old and worn, they wouldn't look out of place on the backs of wandering carpenters. He threw each one to his squad mates which they used to hold their scrolls and the ANBU gear they couldn't seal away.

Meanwhile a few yards away, Naruto and Sakura were getting ready to dye their hair. They had stopped and knelt by the river when Sakura pulled out travel shampoo and brown hair dye and tossed the former to her boyfriend. He caught it and started wetting his hair in the river before adding the shampoo and began lathering up his blonde locks. Likewise, Sakura did the same with her hair. Then after quickly drying their hair, Sakura began dyeing her hair with the expertise that comes from being best friends with Ino. After a few minutes of lathering her hair and getting the excess dye out, she turned to her blonde partner and noticed that he seemed hesitant.

"What's wrong Naruto?" Naruto frowned.

"Oh nothing Sakura-chan, it's just…I don't know how to do this." He held up the bottle of hair dye.

This put a coy smile on Sakura's face. Her boyfriend looked so cute when he looked clueless, lucky for him that was most of the time. How she would have loved to tease him about this, they did have a mission to complete.

"Jeez, you're so helpless sometimes. Come here you, I'll do it."

"Yes ma'am." Naruto cheerful answered, like a well-trained pet would to its master, as he took a knee right in front of Sakura facing away from her.

Sakura put on some latex gloves and applied the product along Naruto's bangs an inch from his roots. She then began combing his unruly spiky hair to spread the dye down the length of his hair. Slowly the product began to cover his blonde locks until they turned into a mud shade of brown. Sakura then started to massage Naruto's scalp to get the rest of the product into his roots, ensuring that even close inspection wouldn't be able to notice his old hair color. Naruto let out a content sigh at the feeling of having his girlfriend's fingers stroking his hair. It felt like bliss, his head gently rocked to Sakura's touch, till Naruto felt Sakura's hands move to the back of his head and plunged it into the river. She held him down for a few seconds before letting him break the surface.

"What the hell, Sakura?!" He sputtered.

"You need to pay attention Baka! I called out to you and you just sat there dazed out of it in your own little world. What if there was an enemy nearby?" She scolded, but it was a playful kind of scolding.

"Geez, you're so mean, Sakura-chan." Naruto whined.

"Oh quit being such a baby." She teased him as she started to rinse out the excess dye from his hair.

Naruto quickly turned around and buried his face into Sakura's belly, wrapping his arms around her waist. "A baby am I?"

Naruto stood up taking Sakura with him. She was lifted off her feet and grabbed Naruto's head for support.

"Naruto! What do you think you're doing?" She asked.

"Giving you a taste of your own medicine." He spoke into her ANBU vest.

Naruto began carrying Sakura out into the middle of the river, all the while fighting against her squirming.

"Naruto! Don't-

Too late! Naruto shifted his weight backwards and released his chakra from the soles of his feet. Together, Naruto and Sakura went tumbling into the river below, their limbs thrashing about in the water. When Sakura broke the surface any anger she had for her boyfriend melted when she saw his now brown locks covering up the top half of his face, making him look like a wet sheep dog. That was until he splashed her and she became determined to get him back. The two of them kept on wrestling in the water, the occasional shriek or spout of laughter filling the air.

The fun was brought to an abrupt halt when two fast growing tree branches wrapped themselves around the two shinobis' waists and plucked them out of the water like two mischievous little kittens.

The two of them were met with the slightly annoyed look of their squad captain. Sakura was embarrassed at being caught red handed by her squad leader while Naruto was more embarrassed at being manhandled.

" _This_ is why I'm not letting the two of you share a room."

Naruto sheepishly laughed to himself while rubbing the back of his head.

"Sakura, you stay here and dry off. Then proceed with the mission as planned." Yamato then lowered Sakura to the ground.

"Naruto, you come with me. We've got to finalize the details for our cover identities. Sakura, we'll see you in the morning. Good luck." And with that, Yamato turned his heels and walked back to Kiba and Lee with Naruto still hanging 10 feet off the ground like the catch of the day. As they walked away, Naruto gave Sakura a cute little wave that she couldn't help to smile at.

Sakura felt a warmth in her chest. Ever since Naruto had returned from his last adventure the two of them had been a couple. Oh sure it had been a bit awkward at first, but after the both of them stopped trying so hard in their dates and just started hanging out like they used to when they were just friends Sakura realized at how natural everything came to her. After years of dancing around the issue, what ifs, and all the self-doubt; finally being with Naruto had honestly been the happiest months of Sakura's young life. He was so kind, gentle, sweet, and fun. He made her feel at ease in his presence, empowered, safe. Plus it was always nice to brag to the hospital staff how your boyfriend was _the_ Hero of the Shinobi world. Not to say that their relationship was perfect. Sakura still couldn't break Naruto out of his daily ramen habit. And the idiot was still prone to disrespectful outburst. But that was just what made Naruto Naruto. He might have been an idiot but he was her idiot.

With a giggle on her lips, Sakura striped out of her soaking clothes and threw on the civilian clothes Yamato had provided. It was a simple outfit that you'd expect to see a wandering merchant wear, already pre-worn and dirty to give her a wary traveler look. She stuffed the rest of her gear into her rough sack and slung it over her shoulder. Satisfied with her appearance, Sakura started hiking towards the nearby road and then towards the town.

~break~

Yamato and the boys arrived several hours later, all dressed in loose fitting clothing that no one would bat an eye at. On top of his civilian disguise, Naruto also had two large band-aids on either cheek used to cover up his whisker scars. Lee had kept his arm bandages on as well as his ankle weights to avoid them ripping a hole through his rough sack. Kiba was also wearing band-aids on his cheeks to avoid showing off his clan tattoos. Together they walked into the nearest inn where a bored looking receptionist was absentmindedly reading a magazine.

"Hi, me and my boys would like a room for the night."

The receptionist looked up and her eyes lit up at the sight of customers.

"Oh hi! Room for four? That we can do. Will you be staying with us for one night or…?"

"One night is fine."

"Excellent. And it'll be extra for dinner and breakfast."

"Just dinner please. We'll be leaving early tomorrow morning and we've got a lot of walking ahead of us."

"Is that so? Where about's are you headed?"

"East. Friend of a friend says that there's more repair work over there after the last big ninja war. As carpenters we're making a killing cleaning up after their mess."

"Heh, consider yourselves lucky. Ever since all those ninjas made peace with one another they've been traveling less and that's bad for business. It's not like we're in the red or anything, but things sure have gotten dull around here the past several months."

"You don't say."

"I do say." The girl replied as she brought out the guest book. "Could I get your names?"

"Sure thing. I'm Toby, these are my sons; Menma, Neji, and Inu."

The receptionist then eyed the three boy and then their "father" before raising an eyebrow.

"My _adopted_ sons."

She gave a coy smile, "of course." She finished up writing down all the necessary info before dangling the room key in front of Yamato. He reached out to grab it before she snapped it back in a teasing manner.

"Tell me something, are you guys ninjas?"

"What gave you that impression?" Yamato replied, trying to maintain his cover.

"Oh I don't know. Four strapping young men traveling together. Most ninjas I see usually travel in packs of four. And the four of you don't seem to have the build of carpenters if you catch my meaning. Less upper body bulk and more all-around leanness."

Yamato smiled, the rest of his squad gulped.

"I'm sorry, I don't think we caught your name. Miss…"

"Anya."

"Anya, you're very observant, but I assure you we aren't ninjas. I'd love it if I had three strong ninjas to help out but all I have on hand are these three lazy idiots."

"Hey!" Naruto and Kiba cried out. Yamato then knocked them both upside the head.

"Sometimes ya just gotta discipline them. Know what I mean?" Yamato said before grabbing the room key out of Anya's grasp.

"Oh I hear you. Got a couple of good for nothings working in house cleaning. I swear I have to watch them or else they'd take a nap on the beds. I'd fire them if there was anyone else to hire in this town."

Yamato continued to enguage in small talk with the woman while ushering his team down the hallway.

"Don't forget, dinner will be served at 7 o clock sharp!" Anya called out.

Yamato gave a polite wave and thank you before disappearing down the hall towards their room.

Once there the quad breathed a little easier. Everyone dropped their packs, relieved to finally be under a roof. Yamato didn't quite relax yet thou.

"Menma?"

 _Menma/_ Naruto raised his two fingers and concentrated his chakra. Calling upon his senjutsu/sage abilities, he scanned the area for hostile intent.

"All clear."

"Excellent. You guys stay here, I'm going to head out for a walk." With that Yamato closed the door and left the males of Gold squad to their own devices.

"Whelp, I'm gonna go check up on Sakura-chan." Naruto declared.

"What, you're not gonna try to make up an excuse to go see her?" Kiba asked.

"If I did, would you have believed me?" Naruto replied.

"No, but I'd appreciate you putting a little effort into blowing us off."

"Oh ok then. I'm gonna go do…not that…" Naruto exited the room and made off towards Sakura's room.

"Nice. So Lee, any thoughts on how to pass the time?" Kiba asked already knowing the answer.

"I'm gonna do some light training of one hundred laps around the village."

"Super." Kiba replied as Lee left him alone to begin his never ending taijutsu training.

 _And not even Akamaru is here to keep me company._ Kiba thought.

He glanced down at his right hand. _Guess it's just you and me old friend…_

 **Author's Notes: I'm gonna earn that M-rating God damn it!**

 **It's a lonely life being a ninja, coupled with the fact that you spent a majority of your puberty years adventuring around the world with not one but two smoking hot kunoichi, you start to value your alone time.**

 **Actually, you know what? I'm not done.**

It was Lee's 200th lap around the village, he stuck to tree hopping while giving the village a wide berth to avoid giving away his ninja origins. He was just about to start feeling the pounding on his shoes from the constant abuse. Lee was nothing if not a work-out fanatic. Anyone who knew Lee would know that he wouldn't stop until he literally collapsed or his idol Guy sensei told him to stop.

Guy sensei…

Ever since opening the 8 inner gates back during the final battle of the war, Guy had been confided to a wheel chair; the physical strain had weakened his bones to the point of pretzel sticks. Weekly healing sessions from Tsunade and Sakura had helped tremendously, but Guy would never recover enough to be a shinobi ever again. Lee made a point to visit his sensei every day, sometimes twice a day, to check up on him and keep him up to date on Lee's own training. Tenten, Lee's only surviving teammate, visited less often, but it was understandable. Lee knew that she didn't like to see their master so weak and helpless. Lee shuttered to imagine how she would react to seeing Guy look so frustrated at his own helplessness. Still, Lee was determined to uphold the teachings his sensei had bestowed upon him. Guy sensei had been there for Lee when his own limbs were shattered and his ninja career remained in doubt, so Lee would return the moral support in triplicate.

Truth be told, his entire team had fallen apart since the war. Tenten in particular was not the same since Neji's death, Lee suspected that it had something to do with the crush Tenten always had on Neji. He wanted to be there for her, but emotional support was never his forte. The ANBU exams had seemed like the perfect solution to their problems, at least to Lee. More high ranked missions, intense training, stuff to get their minds off of their old team and form a new one with all their friends. Actually, Lee had been hoping he and Tenten would be placed on the same squad, spend some more quality time together…as friends. No such luck though. Seems like there were forces out there determined to break apart Lee from his old team.

Just then, Lee spotted Captain Yamato, breaking him out of his gloomy fog. Lee leapt down to the forest floor to where Yamato was crouching next to a tall oak tree.

"Captain Yamato!" Lee cried out.

Yamato snapped his head around to face Lee, a look of surprise on his face only for an instant.

Yamato removed his hand from the tree trunk and stood up to face Lee before addressing him.

"Lee, what are you doing out here?"

"I was out doing my warm-ups when I saw you here out by your lonesome. What were you doing out here?"

"I was sending a report back detailing your progress." Yamato automatically responded.

"To the Leaf right?"

"Yes of course. I'm afraid that you're going to have to cut your training session short tonight. We've got a tough mission tomorrow and I need everyone rested up."

"Of course Captain. I was going do a light workout of only 2,000 sprints and 3,000 push-ups with weights."

"Not tonight you're not. We still need to maintain our cover identity until tomorrow morning, so I will have to insist that you take the night off." Yamato replied sternly.

Had anyone other than the ANBU exam proctor said this to Lee, he would have broken into a passionate speech about Youth and never slacking off. But even Lee knew how important this mission and by extension passing this exam was. With Neji gone and Guy incapacitated, Team Guy was all but disbanded. Lee and Tenten would be forced to group off into separate squads. Joining an ANBU squad was there one chance of keeping what remained of their team together. So for that reason alone, Lee agreed.

"Yes sir, Captain Yamato. I guess I'll head back to the hotel." Yamato gave him a satisfied look.

"You do that. I'll see you back at dinner, I've still got some intel to send to our Hokage."

And with that, Lee nodded and took off towards the inn. Yamato kept his eyes glued on his subordinate until he was certain to be completely gone and resumed his work.

 **Don't know about you guys, but this chapter was kinda boring, so let's go blow up an Orphanage.**

 **Until then, leave a review. It can only increase release rates. Even if they just tell me that my jokes are crude and my references suck. This is still just a hobby for me, but it makes me feel good to know that people reacted to my writing enough to leave a comment.**


	5. Chapter 5 Silver Squad

**Author's Notes: Felt like doing one of those disclaimers that you see all the other fanfic writers do.  
Ahem.  
I don't own Naruto. If I did, his favorite food would probably be pizza or burgers and fries cause I'm American like that.  
On a side note, I wanted to address the reviews I've gotten by saying, "Thank you!"  
Mostly to the guest reviewers cause I can't respond to them directly. It's a shame because some of them I think I would have an interesting discussion with. So a special mention to the reviewers who did use their account: xlyphiechanx, sundes2013, Kairikiani, Iron Monkey Fist, Czar Joseph, and ghostpoet (now tonyblu). It ain't much, but every review puts a smile on my face. Feel free to use the review panel for other things like questions, comments, and concerns. I will most likely respond post haste. But enough of me begging for reviews, let's get on to the story.**

 **Enjoy.**

~Chapter 5~

 _Fifty miles east of the Village Hidden in the Leaves, two days before the present_

It was almost noon on the third day of the stake out and Sasuke was still just sitting up onto a tree, just as he and the rest of Silver squad have been doing since they arrived at their target's last known whereabouts. Way up in the trees out of sight from anyone on the ground, it was hot and muggy; the summer sun seemed determined to making the member of Silver squad pay for wearing the tight black ANBU uniforms.

Needless to say, the members of Silver squad had been having an unenjoyable couple of days.

Their target's location was only a day's journey by tree hopping, with the rest of the time being spent observing the building for suspicious activity.

The target was Kabuto: former Leaf ninja spy and former assistant to Orochimaru, now a formidable missing nin, also one of the key players in the last war. A mad scientist of sorts (although doctor might be more accurate) who had perfected the Resurrection Jutsu: a powerful and forbidden technique created by the 2nd Hokage to bring back fallen soldiers as immortal weapons at the cost of a living vessel. With it, he amassed an army of the most infamous, feared, and powerful deceased ninjas of the last century. The undead could not be killed, wounded, or exhausted, only sealed. That was until Sasuke Uchiha and his own resurrected brother Itachi fought Kabuto and forced him to undo the jutsu, saving the remaining Allied Shinobi and turning the tide of the war.

Kabuto had returned to the front line for the final battle to assist the Allied Forces and ended up saving Sasuke's life. He escaped incarceration and had been on the run ever since with the occasional civilian sightings had placed him here: at a small time rural orphanage which Silver squad had been observing from afar for the past two days.

The members of Silver squad had seen this kind of ploy before. Four of its members have been captives/experiments of Orochimaru. Juugo, Seigetsu, Karin, and Sasuke had all seen first-hand the trickery and deception Orochimaru and by extension Kabuto used to hide their twisted experiments from the rest of society. They wouldn't put it past him to have a lab experimenting on curse mark users hidden beneath an orphanage. It probably gave him easier access to younger test subjects that no one would ever go looking for.

As for the second ANBU team, namely Silver squad was composed of all the former members of Taka, Sasuke's own personal squad created to hunting down Itachi. Plus Kakashi, Sasuke's old genin sensei turned ANBU squad captain and ANBU exam instructor. This created a sort of power struggle in the squad. The former members of Taka recognized Sasuke's leadership, and Sasuke believed himself to be ideal choice to lead this mission, but that responsibility had fallen to Kakashi. A man that had Sasuke's respect, but did not think of as an equal. Sasuke thought no one was his equal. All were just tools to help or obstacles to hinder him on the way to his goals. There was maybe one exception, Naruto; a man he viewed as an equal and a friend, maybe even a brother. Of course he wouldn't have trusted Naruto to lead this squad on this mission either which brings us back to the matter at hand.

The ANBU cadets had been set up in a five point star formation to surround and keep watch over the orphanage, keeping out of sight and in the shadows. Each was isolated and under orders to maintain radio silence unless they spotted their target. At night-time, they quickly regrouped and set up a four man point system to continue observing the site while one of their members got three hours of sleep. It wasn't ideal, but Kakashi had insisted that they keep constant observation on the site whereas had Sasuke been in charge he would have ordered his squad to storm the building and search the premises. It would have been much quicker and more likely to produce results.

Sasuke knew that both Orochimaru and Kabuto were careful; they knew how to build their laboratories so that they would mask chakra signatures. So even though they had Karin with them, who one could argue was either the second or the greatest sensor ninja known to the Shinobi Alliance. She could only sense Kabuto's chakra residue in the surrounding area and inside the building. If he was there and he did have a secret lab, not even Karin could confirm his presence unless he came outside of the underground lab.

So they waited.

Sasuke hated waiting. Ever since he had returned to the Leaf, things had gotten extremely dull. First he was put on trial for numerous crimes of betrayal and attempted murder. Half the council of Kages wanted to execute him right on the spot. The other half was more forgiving and only wanted to blind his eyes and give him a vasectomy before throwing him in jail. Slowly however, through Naruto's impassioned speeches and the reveal of Sasuke's involvement in winning the war, the Kages were willing to offer him deal. Since they couldn't have the second strongest shinobi on the planet wandering it freely, they gave him a choice, to rejoin the Leaf's Shinobi forces under close observation. In a choice between being a ninja or having his balls cut off, it was a no brainer. Reluctantly, Sasuke accepted their offer on the condition that his teammates Karin, Seigetsu, and Juugo be offered the same deal. He would not, however, return from where he left off, as a genin. He was far too powerful to be chasing cats out of trees and then having to go through the chunin exams all over again just to be offered some decent missions. So when Naruto came to him with the prospect of jumping ahead to ANBU or jounin rank was also a no brainer.

Surviving atop the frozen mountain side and fighting snow wolves had been difficult, not to mention that blending in with the civilian populous in a one horse town had provided its own challenges. But now here he was, on his first official mission since rejoining the Leaf and his last chance to finish proving himself to the Hokage and the Leaf council, yet here he was sitting on his ass in a tree.

Even with one arm missing, he still was one of the most powerful ninjas on the planet. Armed with his Mangekyo Sharingan and Rinnegan, there wasn't a man alive (save for Naruto) who could hold a candle to Sasuke even on his worst day.

This was ridiculous. After watching little orphans play ninja for two hours that day, Sasuke had had enough. He raised his forefinger to his ear and radioed his squad leader.

"Kakashi. Request permission for me and my squad to enter the premises."

Sasuke waited a moment for the crackling of radio static to issue a reply.

"Stick to the codenames Hawk. Have you spotted the target?"

"Negative."

"Then maintain radio silence."

"No, it is a waste of time anyway. We'll get nowhere unless we just move in and search the building." Sasuke was getting annoyed now. Didn't Kakashi realize that Sasuke needed a win on this mission, and that he certainly was going to get one just waiting around?

"That is a clear negative, Hawk. You will maintain your position and continue observing the area. Only when the target will be spotted will we move in."

"If you don't order Silver squad to move in, then I'll order Taka to move in." Sasuke threatened, his voice a tone lower.

Half a click away, Kakashi was frowning underneath his two masks. He knew that three of his squad mates' loyalty was to Sasuke. It was only through Sasuke's loyalty to Kakashi that he had maintained order.

"Why don't you take a break Hawk? The rest of us can resume a 4 point system while you take a three hour cat nap?" Kakashi suggested, trying to provide his former student a way out.

 _A cat nap? Was he serious? Is he trying to put me in a timeout?_ Sasuke thought. If there was one thing Sasuke despised it was being underestimated and Kakashi's pussyfoot approach to apprehending Kabuto was like saying Sasuke couldn't capture the snake singlehandedly.

Sasuke radioed the rest of his squad, "Taka, move in." he ordered. A moment passed before each squad mate radioed in a single blip in confirmation. Sasuke took the opportunity to leap through the trees towards the target area, his legs kicking off of every branch felt exhilarating after days of inactivity. Finally, he reached the break in the tree line and landed softly onto the trimmed field just outside of the orphanage. The orphans playing ninja all stopped to look at the masked stranger who had invaded their carefree little world. None of them spoke a word. The few of them that had seen ANBU agents in their time knew to stay out of their way. The rest looked upon him with a mix of awe and fear and then three more ANBU agents appeared behind the first one.

The one to the right of the first one, was a female a couple of inches shorter than the first ANBU to arrive, blood red hair sticking out from behind her cat mask. She was sticking needlessly close to the hawk masked one while trying to match his pace step by step.

The shark masked one on the left was the same height as the hawk masked ANBU with white hair and pale skin. On his back there was a huge sword, the size of the children's playground slide. He walked with a kind of swagger you don't see often around an orphanage probably thinking how everyone thought he looked so cool with that big ass sword strapped to his backside.

The short, canary masked giant taking up the rear looked like a bear had decided to join the ANBU corps and was thoroughly indifferent towards it. All he cared about was following the leader in front of him like his hair was the tail feathers of a momma duck.

Finally, the hawk masked man in front walked towards the main building with a kind of laser like focus. Never turning his head to glance at the little kids scattered around the playground. Like they weren't worth his time or interest. All that mattered was conducting his business, whatever that may be.

Back with Kakashi…

"Sasuke, stand down!" he radioed. No response.

 _Well there goes the element of surprise._ Kakashi sighed. He should have known better than to trust Sasuke to follow the chain of command now that he was essentially a demigod, save for the untarnished body. Sasuke claimed that not getting the prosthetic arm was a form of recompense. To who? Kakashi wasn't sure. Kakashi was more certain that Sasuke turning down the new limb had more to do with his own arrogance because he didn't need two arms to fight anyone or half his ninja techniques. Not when he had the Rinnegan and now his level of strength was forever cemented at Naruto's level. Should the two ever fight again, the outcome would always be in Sasuke's favor. If he tied with Naruto, then he fought the great Naruto to a standstill with one arm. If he lost, then he held his own against the great Naruto with only one arm. It sickened Kakashi to no end that he had once been on the pep-squad for Sasuke's ego and look how that had turned out. The boy was arrogant, and his arrogance was about to cost them the mission if things took a turn for the worst and quite frankly, they always took a turn for the worst.

 _I know! I know!_ Kakashi responded back in his head.

The reinstated ANBU captain then leapt out of his hiding hole in the trees towards the Orphanage, hoping to intercept Taka before they did some irreversible damage.

"Well, well, well." A voice came out from the ground below the trees. "Long time no see? Isn't it Kakashi?"

 _That voice!_ Kakashi looked down to see an old and unwelcomed face.

 _Back with Taka…_

Urushi liked to think of himself as a simple man. He had lived in this orphanage his entire life, save for the years he spent living on his own during his ninja career. He had made chunin and fought in the Fourth Shinobi World War before realizing that the lifestyle just wasn't for him. So he took an early retirement from the Shinobi Force and moved back to his childhood home to help as a caretaker. Not the epic tale of adventure his 9 year old self had dreamed about, but he was more than satisfied with the simple living. Plus, there was just something about seeing the grateful smiles on the faces of little kids who had nothing that gave him the strength to keep getting up every morning to greet the hectic challenge of caring for over one hundred children. More satisfaction than he ever got from doing mind-numbing D-ranked missions and the occasional C-ranked escort mission. Sure, the pay was better but the cliental usually wasn't. These kids, however, looked up to him. They were like his own brothers and sisters from back when he was an orphan.

Yes, he was satisfied with his own peaceful little corner of the world. So when a team of ANBU came bursting through the trees and walked up to him like they owned the place, he was more than a little apprehensive at them. He knew their type just by looking at them, and their type always brought trouble.

"Can I help you?"

"Yeah," the shark spoke up, "would ya mind stepping out of our way. We gotta search this here premises."

 _Oh please._ Thought Urushi. _Continue being a rude asshole. Come on, make my day…_

"I don't think so." Urushi crossed his arms while keeping his feet spread, ready to spring into a defensive stance at a moment's notice. A tiny detail that only a seasoned veteran would have picked up. "How about you state your business or get lost."

Sasuke sighed. He didn't have time for this whole talking and reasoning crap, that was more of Naruto's thing and Naruto was still more prone to yelling and punching when things didn't go his way.

"We're here on official ANBU business, looking for a dangerous fugitive. Anything more than that is classified."

"Yeah, yeah. I know all about you ANBU spooks and your _classified_ missions and that was before I joined the ninja core and learned what assholes you can be."

The slip of the tongue that this guy was a ninja was another subtle warning at the four of them to not mess with him which would probably have been cute if they were an average ANBU squad. For Sasuke, at his level, this whole ordeal was anything but annoying to him, not to mention that this nobody thought he could intimidate him. Suigetsu himself seemed to have similar thoughts.

"Oh yeah? So you're a big bad ninja too? That's cute, what was your rank?

Jounin?

Chunin?

Genin?"

The tables have turned and now Urushi was the one feeling threatened, which didn't help him trust any of this wise guys. Urushi looked around and saw all of the kids staring at him. He was like their big brother in charge of taking care of them. To see him being verbally manhandled was not something they needed to see. He needed to pull himself together to save face.

"Chunin, but don't start thinking that I'm just gonna let you in here. This orphanage is under the Hokage's protection. You ANBU are directly under the Hokage so you gotta listen to what she says. And last I checked, you ANBU need a warrant to search this place. So let's see it."

 _I REALLY don't have time for this._ Thought Sasuke.

"Seigetsu, Juugo; take care of this guy. Karin, come with me."

With that, Sasuke brushed past the caretaker and entered the orphanage with Karin in tow. Urushi tried to step in between Sasuke and the door, but was pulled aside by Seigetsu for some words. The words quickly turned into shouts and shoving between the men until Juugo tried to intervene.

"Seigetsu, stop it. This is getting us nowhere. There is no need for violence."

~break~

 _Inside the orphanage…_

Sasuke and Karin entered what could charitably described as a bare bones shack. Well that wasn't completely true. It's just that save for light fixtures, doors, and windows there wasn't much else in the hallway. Nothing decorative hung the walls, nor was there any paint upon them to brighten the room, just wood floors on wooden walls with wooden ceilings. There was a finish painted on to keep the wood from splintering and it all smelled of disinfectant soap. Opposite the rows of windows facing the playground were doors that opened to rooms filled with identical bunk beds. Some held various knick knacks and children's drawings. Probably the only possessions those kids owned in the world. At the base of each bunk was a single chest which Sasuke assumed was used to store their clothing. Since there wasn't enough chests for each bunk, no doubt the children had to share storage space with their bunkmates.

Sasuke frowned and gave the room a good "Hn" before shutting the door and moving on. Further down the hall was a kitchen with outdated appliances and then another door which led to cathedral like room. No doubt used as a makeshift classroom/cafeteria/play room for the winter months.

At the end of the hallway was an office with the standard desks and filing cabinets. And a door which led to another hallway where the caretaker rooms were located. Each of them had a simple lock on the door and no special seals on them as far as Sasuke could detect with his Sharingan/Rinnegan combo. So far he couldn't find anything out of the ordinary; no hidden floorboards or secret entrances that were Kabuto's usual motif. After spending nearly four years training under Orochimaru's tutelage and moving from base to base, Sasuke knew about all the little tricks Orochimaru and Kabuto liked to use to hide their secret underground labs. If there was an underground laboratory here, then Kabuto had gotten better at hiding his work.

"Karin, have you found anything yet?" Sasuke's question was met with silence. "Karin?"

Sasuke backtracked through the office to find Karin lingering in one of the last bedrooms for orphans. More specifically, the nursery.

It was the same sized room as all the other bedrooms, but the nursery only had six occupants, all of whom were sleeping. Karin had taken an interest in a raven haired girl fussing in her crib. She looked no more than a month old, a frown adorned her face like she was having a nightmare. Her little kicks and flailing arms tried desperately to untangle her blanket and her coos started to get louder. Sensing a tantrum on the rise, Karin picked up the little bundle and cradled her in her arms.

"Shhh, little one, shhh. It's alright. No need to cry. Just go back to sleep." Karin began rocking the baby in her arms.

Hearing a new voice, the girl opened her sleepy eyes and looked up at Karin, who had removed her ANBU mask. The brown orbs looked curiously at this red headed beauty with the glasses that looked familiar like another one of the caretakers but not quite.

Deciding that she could inquire about this later, the baby girl gave into the soothing rocking motion and settled down before nodding off back to sleep. Karin continued to rock and hum to the baby without a care in the world.

Now Sasuke wasn't made of stone. He just preferred to keep his emotions in check so that they could never be used against him. So even if the scene before him had made his inner self sigh with precious joy, he would be damned before he let anyone know it. They had a mission to complete after all.

"Hn."

Karin turned around as her little world broke down. "Oh, Sasuke!"

"Have you sensed anything yet?"

Karin felt dejected. "No I… I haven't. Really been trying… yet…"

"Well get a move on. The sooner we do this the sooner we can get back to the Leaf." Sasuke turned and left to find room keys in the office so that he wouldn't have to break down any doors.

"Right." Karin spoke aloud, even though Sasuke had already left. With a weary sigh she placed the baby back into her crib. The little girl was out like a light and it brought a sad smile to Karin's face. It made her wonder if she was like that as a baby. Back when she lived in an orphanage at the Hidden Grass village. She was a lot like all the babies in this room. Dropped off at such a young age, forced to spend the rest of her life in a cramped and underfunded home with dozens of other orphans hoping that one day a nice couple would come along and adopt them. As she got older she remembered all the kids talking about what they wanted their possible step parents to be like. Most of the boys wanted a super badass ninja father and an amazing cook for a mother. The girls preferred handsome and kind fathers with gentle and beautiful mothers. Karin, she would have preferred anyone who could overlook her unusual hair color. All the potential parents who stopped by all wanted kids who looked somewhat like them to make the transition easier and unfortunately, Karin's blood red hair was deemed too exotic by most parents. One particularly awful couple didn't want to have to pay for any future eyeglasses Karin might need. But for this girl, Karin knew that she would be okay. So young and pretty with straight black hair? She'd be adopted before she turned one.

Karin turned away before she became tempted to give the baby a farewell peck on the forehead. If she did that, she'd want to adopt the girl and now just wasn't the time for that in her life.

Maybe one day, she could come back here and see if this little girl was still here and if she was with Sasuke and- No…

Karin slipped her cat mask on and made her way towards the cathedral room or what she deemed the center of the complex.

Before her thoughts could drift towards her own memories of eating at tables so very similar to these ones, she sat her butt down in the center of the room. Closing her eyes and taking a meditative pose, Karin tried to remember what Naruto had taught her about sensing chakra, not that Karin wasn't already a world class sensor type, she was. She could sense chakra signatures half a mile away without even trying or could tell if a person was lying based on their chakra flow alone. What her long distant relative had taught her was his own sensing abilities through his Sage mode. The two of them figured that by combining his sage training with her natural abilities, Karin could become the best sensor ninja in the world.

That being said, there wasn't much that Naruto could teach her without accidently turning her into a frog. But, he had helped her learn how to meditate and focus herself and her senses. The trick was to imagine a blue orb (the color didn't matter, Naruto just preferred blue) and make it as calm and rounded as possible. By doing that she would calm herself and be free from distractions, allowing her to utilize her sensing abilities to their fullest potential.

In this pose, at the center of the building, Karin could sense everything in greater detail. She could sense Sasuke's stoic chakra which had thawed a bit over the last year. She could sense the little ones peacefully sleeping, each of them sporting just a flicker of chakra. She could sense all the kids outside who felt uneasy and scared, the source of their unease being her other two idiotic teammates who were still fighting with the caretaker.

Karin frowned, she was getting distracted again.

 _Sasuke will get upset if I take too long._

Regaining her focus, Karin imagined the blue orb bulging down to focus on the ground beneath her as if there was any kind of underground room below this orphanage, she would feel it. And she did, except it was a pantry. Pushing her senses even further down, she still couldn't find anything.

 _Even secret laboratories need air holes, and the only pipes going down are sewage pipes for the bathrooms. There's nothing- wait!_

There was something exactly in one of the caretaker rooms where Sasuke was currently breaking the door down for, was the lingering chakra signature of Kabuto!

Karin would know it anywhere. Being experimented on by Kabuto for a majority of her teen years, she learned to recognize his signature as a sign that another round of painful injections was about to take place.

It was faint though. Like he hadn't been there for a while, but that room had definitely been used for sleeping in. So it proved that Kabuto was here. Or had been here. Maybe he had threatened the staff to let him stay here before moving on.

 _I need to report this to Sasuke-kun._ Karin thought before getting up to go find Sasuke but before she could do that though, the wall leading to outside was blown apart when a crazed juggernaut burst through.

" **FUCK YEAH! VIOLENCE! YOU WANNA FIGHT? I WANNA FIGHT! LET'S FUCKING FIGHT!** "

The dark skinned giant looked around the room wildly, not even bothering to brush the debris off his shoulders, before spotting Karin, who quickly leapt into a defensive stance.

"Holy shit, Juugo! Seriously? You couldn't hold it together for a week? There are children here!"

" **I KNOW, RIGHT? BRING'EM ON, I SAY! I'M GONNA PUNT KICK THE LOT OF THEM INTO CROWDS OF EVEN MORE KIDS AND WATCH ALL THEIR BONES BREAK!** "

Juugo then turned his agro fist onto the nearby chair that looked funny to him, knocking it aside into the window where the caretakers handed out the kid's meals.

Karin was terrified as hell, not for her sake (well partially for her sake), but for the orphans, especially the little one who no doubt awoke when the cafeteria walls collapsed.

Sasuke needed to get here quick. Whenever Juugo lost control, Sasuke could always calm Juugo down the fastest with his Sharingan. Karin's chains might work, but more likely it would cause Juugo to just thrash about and destroy more of the building. She had to try something else. Something more subtle…

"Juugo," Karin spoke to him in a calm motherly voice. The same voice she had just used to calm the fussy child. "Please calm down. I need you to calm down…"

Karin raised her hands up in a non-threatening manner. She stepped towards Juugo who had stopped his flailing to look at her with a curious expression. It seemed to be working…

" **EAT MY FIST, CUNT!** " Juugo yelled before launching himself at Karin with his fist raised and his elbow literally transformed into rockets propelling him forward.

He was inches from Karin's face when a giant, purple flaming skeleton hand came crashing down upon Juugo, flattening him to the ground.

"Juugo…" Came a pissed off voice. Karin turned around to see her savior which was none other than Sasuke.

" **OH COME ON! LET ME KILL'EM! JUST ONE! THAT'S ALL I NEED! JUST ONE! JUST HER! OK NOT HER, BUT JUST ONE KID! ANY KID! EVEN A BABY!** "

Sasuke had heard enough. He lifted Susanoo's index finger to allow Juugo to look up into Sasuke's Sharingan. Instantly Juugo's expression softened and his transformation receded. Turning him back into the gentle giant instead of the blood thirsty maniac.

Juugo was about to fade into unconsciousness when he received an angry boot to the face from Karin.

" **CALL ME A CUNT WILL YOU?! I TRY TO TALK YOU DOWN AND YOU ATTACK ME LIKE THAT AND CALL ME A CUNT IN FRONT OF ALL THESE ORPHANS? AND THIS IS AN ORPHANAGE YOU IDIOT! WE'RE SUPPOSED TO BE SEARCHING THE PLACE AND YOU DESTROY HALF OF THEIR HOME! THERE ARE BABIES SLEEPING HERE YOU FUCKING BRUTE! KILL ME? I'LL KILL YOU!** "

Sasuke just let her rant. He knew better than to get in the way of pissed off women. His mother had taught him that long ago. Right now they needed to orient themselves, this mission was a disaster and they still hadn't found out about Kabuto's whereabouts.

The tinkling of glass alerted Sasuke to Seigetsu trying to navigate through the debris while cradling a massive headache from having his head reform after Juugo splattered it across the field. "Whelp, the nanny guy is knocked out but not dead. And I didn't see any of the kids getting hurt. They're all screaming and running around though. So, as long as we find that secret base, we can chalk this mission up to a success."

Sasuke just stared at Seigetsu with his smartass remarks. Seigetsu on the other hand was looking around the remains of what was once the main hall of the orphanage until he spied a hole in the floorboards.

"Well what do you know? Mister calm and collected managed to stumble upon the secret base's secret entrance. Great job Chuckles." Juugo muttered a-you're-welcome in-between getting his face stomped on.

Sasuke left Karin and Juugo to their own devices while he strolled over to where Seigetsu was kneeling and rummaging through the broken floorboards.

What he found surprised them all. Even Sasuke was close to showing a reaction.

 _Make-Out Paradise: The erotic graphic novel edition._

With full colored pages and an original opening commentary made by the late author's student, Naruto Uzumaki; it read on the back.

Suigetsu was the first to find his voice, "I didn't know it had come out yet."

"I got it special ordered." Came a voice all too familiar to the four wayward ninjas.

There standing in the hole in the wall stood none other than Kabuto Yakushi, with his pale snake like skin, ghastly grey hair, and full moon spectacles to cover his black eyes. Kabuto was also wearing a simple robe similar to the one the unconscious caretaker had been wearing. Standing next to him was a very pissed off Kakashi while Kabuto on the other hand had a more amused look on his face. He looked upon the ANBU trainees like they were naughty kids caught with their hands in the cookie jar.

"Not that it isn't great to see you again Sasuke, but I have to ask. Why are the four of you destroying my home?"

 **Author's Note: For the record, I thought of having Kabuto be working for the Orphanage long before the ending of Gaiden happened (Thanks thesayianjedi for reading it so I didn't have to), but I digress.  
The first draft idea for this chapter had Taka destroying the orphanage because they're unsympathetic jerks like that, but after talking with some other authors I realized that I was trying to depict them as former rouges trying to be good. So it would be better for them to screw up and it not be entirely their fault.  
And I know some people agree with the idea of Sasuke journeying out to redeem himself, but I see this as another kind of redemption. This is a Sasuke who is tired of playing the lone rouge. He is tired of being surrounded by hatred. He wants to come back to the Leaf to be with those who love him to rebuild the life he once had here. Maybe one day he will venture out to right wrongs. Until then, there is no way in hell he is going to be outranked by Naruto.**


	6. Chapter 6 Pull Up Your Bootstraps

**Author's Note: Gotta thank formerly tonyblu, now discontinuedprojects since he took an indefinite break from writing fanfiction all together, for betaing this and every chapter so far. Even if he hates how I abruptly cut my sentences off.**

 **And it drives him up the wall.**

 **I don't own Naruto. If I did, I would have released the good ending by now.**

~Chapter 6~

Back at the present time...

Panda was leaping through the trees as fast as her night vision would allow, followed closely behind by Butterfly.

No wait, they weren't Panda and Butterfly anymore. Those were ANBU codenames. They had just failed their ANBU try-outs right at the start of their final exam. Months of staving off hypothermia and the overwhelming urge to cave in the skulls of drunken villagers she was supposed to be waiting on with the blunt end of a kunai had been wasted. The promise that she had made to her former sensei was wasted. She had let him down. She let her idol Lady Tsunade down. She would soon have let her parents down, who were so proud of their youngest daughter being the first in their family to make ANBU. But worst of all she had let her teammates down. Not just the rest of Copper squad, but every one of the Konoha 11, her friends. All of them had been together for so long since the chūnin exams she couldn't help but think of all of them as her extended team, her family. Especially Lee. He was her longest surviving teammate. They had been classmates in the academy together. Even if she hadn't paid him any mind until they were put on a genin squad together and even then she was drawn more to Neji at the start (him being the Rookie of the Year back then), he was her closest brother-in-arms.

Tenten remembered the months after the war when the Leaf council was attempting to get their forces back in order. When the fate of their now two man squad remained in doubt. There was talk of splitting the two up and cycling them into other squads that had only lost one member or promoting them both straight to jōnin instructors and giving them their own genin to lead. Neither of them felt up to the task of teaching though. Not yet anyway. Then Lee came sprinting towards her on his hands to tell her about the ANBU exams. A chance for the two of them to stay together and make their sensei proud.

"Stupid Sai." Tenten thought. "Who is he to fail me?"

It wasn't fair. It just wasn't fair.

Gold squad and Silver squad got actual experienced ANBU captains to lead them. Guys who knew how to properly lead a squad, not this ROOT foot soldier. Sai was a lot of things, but a squad leader was not one of them, that was for certain. He only got the position because all the other ANBU captains were taken and he had the most black ops experience.

No doubt the other teams were breezing through their mission assignments under competent leadership.

Tenten thought about how all her other peers were going to make ANBU before she could. Naruto, Sakura, and Sasuke; the three new powerhouses of the Leaf would no doubt soar through the ranks and each make captain in a year, followed by the rest of Sasuke's merry bunch of misfits. And not to forget Kiba and Lee… she was going to lose her best friend just like she feared she would. If he wasn't on a squad with all their old friends he would be placed on a new squad, he was bound to make new friends. Surely they would have to get used to his eccentric personality, his overly enthusiastic rants about youth, his tendency to overwork himself to the point of exhaustion, and how all that training made his back look like a jigsaw puzzle when he took off his disgusting green jumper in the river that one time and - where was she going with this?

Tenten blushed at her own train of thought. Why was she having this kind of thoughts about Lee? He was her best friend, her teammate but that's all that he was. Plus, the guy was an idiot; an overwhelmingly enthusiastic idiot whose antics exhausted Tenten every single, damned time she was around him. She just didn't want to be separated from her last teammate from her original squad.

That was all.

 _Back at the Leaf village, in the Konoha Hospital emergency care ward._

Lee sneezed, enough to jar his injuries and wake him up. The Blue Beast of the Leaf issued a soft groan before the pain medication eased him back to sleep.

 _Back at the mission site with Tenten and Ch_ ō _ji._

Come to think of it. Shino was still in the running for an ANBU position. Sai hadn't called him out on using his clan jutsu. Shino was always the quiet type, so of course he would have no trouble going unnoticed. Hell, he'd be perfect for ANBU work. He'd screw up a mission and get himself caught, then by the next morning none of the enemies would even remember him. Tenten wondered to herself why they hadn't tried to recruit him into ANBU before he even became a genin. It sounded like the perfect fit.

Getting back on track, Tenten leapt down to the base of the Willow tree and skidded to a halt. She was joined by Chōji about ten seconds later, in time to catch her punching the Willow tree with all her might.

"ARGH!" Tenten yelled at the tree.

The first punch hurt as Tenten had stripped herself of the ANBU gloves before beginning. She needed to feel this. She needed to punish herself. How could she fuck up such a simple mission so quickly?

The second punch also hurt. Her bare knuckles digging into the bark. The third punch hurt less, as did the fourth and fifth. Soon she couldn't feel it at all. Just the tree trunk cracking under her barrage of fists. Had she been Sakura, Tenten probably would have knocked the whole damn tree down in one blow because she was so much fucking better at everything.

Now anyone, even with Sai's social skills could understand that Tenten was upset. But only her close friends could tell just how significant that punch was. For one thing, it was a punch. Tenten never punched anything, she had maces for that. She was the weapons specialist. That was her whole thing. She never risked her hands like that. She needed them to wield weapons. Failing the ANBU exam must really be eating at her.

"Tenten…"

"Don't start Chōji. I don't need this right now." She gave the poor trunk one final whack.

"Actually, I think you do." Chōji stated with a conviction he hadn't felt since the war.

"I get how you must feel right now. I failed too."

"No. You don't." Tenten choked out through bitter tears, her whole tough girl act was crumbling all around her. She didn't dare turn around to let her teammate see her like this. She was the tomboy of the Konoha 11. The last girl to cry. She never let this persona slip; maybe with her mom, or off duty with the girls around an open tub of cookie dough ice cream, or Lee if she couldn't help it. Never to a fellow ninja though.

"You don't know what it's like. I didn't just lose my shot at being ANBU. I don't even care about that. I lost my last chance to stay with my teammate."

Choji just stood there. Years of listening to Ino's rants had taught him when it was best to just listen to a woman rather than respond.

"Neji is dead. Guy-sensei is crippled for life. And now Lee is gonna join a new ANBU team, leaving me all alone!" Tenten sniffed.

Again, Chōji just let Tenten get it out of her system. She needed this. Ninjas, no matter their gender, all had their breaking points. Whether it be after days and nights of endless fighting or just a harsh dose of reality. That stupid rule about ninjas never shedding tears during missions was set up by old farts who didn't want soldiers completing their missions, they wanted tools. Well, ninjas weren't tools; they were people. That was something every ninja had to learn if they wanted to keep their sanity in check. That didn't mean that a ninja would allow his comrade to just fall to ruins though.

"Here's the thing, Tenten. I _do_ know what you are going through."

"No you don't."

"Yes, I do. I've lost my old squad too. Don't you remember?"

Tenten's eyes shot wide open. Of course, how could she forget?

"My sensei Asuma died fighting the Akatsuki. And my teammates and best friends had to resign from the ninja corps for a few months to deal with their clan politics after their fathers died during the final battle of the 4th war."

Every word felt like a punch in the gut to Tenten. The fact that he had to remind her of his own tragedy like this. That she had forgotten…

"So my team has been disbanded. Ino joined the ANBU torture and interrogation branch while Shikamaru joined the 12 Guardians, leaving me all alone."

At this point Chōji actually started chuckling to himself.

"It's funny. We've always been the best team, yet I was always the odd man out. This was supposed to be my thing. My chance to shine and… and I screwed it up."

Chōji scratched the back of his head and looked around, trying to be nonchalant as possible. Tenten had given into her fatigue and slumped down onto her butt. The two of them just stood there and sat for a good few minutes. After a minute, Tenten's sobs went silent.

"I'm sorry."

"It's fine."

"No it's not."

"No, it is."

Tenten sighed. Her experience with boys her age taught her that this was an argument she wasn't going to win. _You have to throw them a bone sometimes._ Her mother used to tell her.

"So, what now?" Tenten wiped her tears before facing Chōji.

Chōji stood ten feet away from her, shifting his neck and his shoulders from side to side, hoping to get a good crack in.

"Well I don't know about you, but I'm thinking of pulling a Naruto."

"Doing something stupid and getting punched by Sakura?"

"No. Screwing orders and doing what I think is right." Tenten made an 'oh' face.

"ANBU or not, there still are villagers out there missing and having God knows what done to them. I came here to find out what happened to them and that's exactly what I'm going to do."

The weapons mistress couldn't help but crack a smile. Here she was bawling her eyes out and this guy had already decided to do the noble and heroic thing.

She turned around and was greeted to a leaned over Chōji extending his hand out to help her up.

"When did you turn out all heroic and inspiring?"

"When my friends needed a pick-me-up." Tenten smirked.

Chōji lifted her up to her feet and she began to dust her butt off.

"Alright Mr. Pick-Me-Up, what's the plan?"

"I saw some steam coming out of a clearing a few clicks south of here. In the area we determined was a swamp. This whole skirmish with the bandits got me thinking of something my old team discovered one time we were dealing with a bandit camp. I figure it's as good a place as any to start looking."

Tenten cocked her head to the side to get a better angle at what Chōji was pointing at. A small clearing through the trees showed three plums of steam rising from what was most likely a swamp of some kind. The steam being lightly illuminated by the moonlight coming through a break in the clouds.

She nodded. "Sounds like a plan. You lead the way."

The big man gave his own nod before strapping his mask to his belt and taking off towards the swamp. Followed closely behind by his new partner in crime.

~break~

 _Back with the active members of Copper squad and their prisoners._

"Fucking Leaf scum!"

It was the last words of another thug.

Sai held the man's head upright by his hair, exposing his neck for a clean slice. Like crossing out mistakes on a student's answer sheet, Sai methodically moved on to the next prisoner strung up on the trunk without even waiting for the last one to finish choking on his own blood.

The captives struggled with their restraints as best they could, but the veterans in the group knew it was pointless. They had seen countless executions during their years as rogue ninjas. Some were perpetrated by them onto others, sometimes to their own friends and all they could do was try and maintain their dignity in their final moments.

One of the greener recruits however, was thrashing about for all he was worth; desperate to escape. His name was Hitomu, a young, rogue ninja hailing from the Land of Lightning. Despite being a missing nin, he was too insignificant to merit a page in his country's own bingo book. He had left his home village after his promotion to genin was denied since he thought himself strong enough to venture out of his village's safe haven into the great wide open world. Even if he hadn't quite mastered the art of transformation his taijutsu skills were adequate enough to help him survive in the world through bodyguard work and join a couple of gangs. How he got _here_ , though,was irrelevant for this was how, a single dream and his story were going to end. A fifteen years old executed by a member of the Konoha ANBU black ops then left in a shallow grave or a ditch.

His mother would never learn the truth about his final moments. It all seemed so pathetic when put into context. All he could do is beg for his life. The emotionless ANBU mask responded by placing his free palm over Adrian's mouth, with his thumb wrapped under his jaw to keep the mercenary's mouth shut until his final moments. The ANBU pushed upwards right underneath Hitomu's nose, forcing his head back into the tree trunk. The tip-less blade held in the ANBU's other hand and pressed against the boy's throat. One quick motion and it would all be over and so, Hitomu closed his eyes to wait for the lethal slice that would never come.

"Enough." Shino spoke aloud.

Sai turned his head to face his subordinate who had dared to grab his shoulder.

"Stand down, Beetle. You wanted to become ANBU? This is what we do."

"Maybe it is what Root did, but I am a Leaf ninja first, and we never took life unnecessarily. Not when we could help it."

Sai lowered his sword from the young rogue's neck (to Hitomu's great relief) and stood up to face his new teammate. He went silent for a few moments, to articulate a planned response he probably read somewhere on how to defuse morally outraged comrades.

"Grow up Beetle. The Leaf only gets to play the role of morally outstanding military force because of shadows like me. Like us. If you don't have the stomach for this line of work, then say so and I will personally fail you now and complete the mission myself."

"You should fail me. I used my clan's jutsu to gain victory just like Chōji and Tenten. We had to. Why? Because you, our squad leader, left the three of us hung out to dry against a platoon of enemy combatants."

"I issued you all your orders and the rules of engagement when the mission began."

"You couldn't have done that before we touched down? On the bird ride here, through verbal commands? Giving us ample time to review our orders and voice concerns."

"It always sounds so simple in hindsight, but the fact remains that I issued the orders and you failed to follow through with them. All of you."

"This team is new. As a squad leader, you need to accommodate for our lack of insight to how ANBU missions are carried out. That is the whole point of this assignment. If you can't do that, then our failures fall upon you equally."

"Uh, excuse me? Did you say the Leaf?"

The two ANBU ninjas turned their heads towards the offending prisoner who interrupted them. Who turned out to be the same thug who had attacked Shino with a shovel: finally awoken after passing out from the pain of having his face thrown into a burning tree.

"No, you are mistaken." Sai replied before stepping towards the captive to silence him forever.

"Wa-wa-wait! Wait! We hired you! My father! My father, Ichigo Rein, he asked the Leaf to come help us!" This stopped Sai in his tracks, good thing too, his blade was already pressed against the man's Adam's apple.

"If that's true, then what were you doing attacking us?" Shino gave the so called son of the village chief a stern look.

"I had no choice. The gangsters, they kidnapped all of my people. The women and children were held hostage and the men they didn't take away had to help the thugs fight off any invaders. They threatened our families!"

"Shut your fucking mouth, scumbag!" One of the thugs yelled. "Don't breathe another word to those Leaf dogs or I swear to God I will- THUNK!

At that moment, Sai had flicked his wrist to launch a kunai at the thug which penetrated his skull without Sai having to even take his eyes off of the villager.

"Hold on… You said the men they didn't take away? Who did they take away?"

"I don't know, it was all random or so it seemed! All of them were healthy men, though. Mid-twenties at least. None of them sick or elderly. They took them from their cells, ripped them right out of the arms of their families! We never saw them again. That was a few weeks ago, I think. They don't let us out of cells to go on patrol during the daytime. It's so-so confusing!"

Sai and Shino shared a glance, both of them knew this could easily be a trick. A fabricated story to let them drop their guard and release the man. They could take him if he fought them, but if he ran and he got away, he could warn his buddies about them. If that happened, their element of surprise would be completely shot and they'd have to abandon the mission. That was unacceptable.

Sai took a closer look at the man, he had learned through books that you could usually tell if someone was lying by the looks on their face. It was always something subtle, but this man was a civilian, he wasn't trained like shinobi were to lie.

He studied the man's face, taking in every detail. His round jaw, his almost childlike face, his stern expression that beheld piercing blue eyes. So much so like a certain someone that Sai knew. A man who had broken Sai out of this emotional shell all those years ago. It was uncanny, the man before Sai looked like a whiskerless, brown haired Naruto.

Sai sheathed his sword. "What is your name?"

"Kaneda. Kaneda Rein."

Sai made a quick hand sign and an ink based Shadow Clone oozed to life.

"Alright Kaneda," Ink Sai untied the ropes binding him. "Come with us, we have much to discuss."

The trio walked over to behind a rather thick oak tree, leaving the Ink Clone to watch over the prisoners.

~break~

With Chōji and Tenten…

The duo was tree hopping through the woods with Chōji leading the charge. By now their eyes had fully adjusted and there was a break in the clouds to make navigating the midnight terrain manageable.

It was a shinobi's forte to use all their senses when traversing hostile territory. By channeling chakra into their eyes they could improve their night vision and depth perception. With the same trick they could enhance their hearing to catch a twig snapping on the ground even while they were soaring through the tree branches. This caused Chōji to issue the 'hide' command to Tenten, who followed him as he dropped down into the bushes.

Chakra could also be used to silence a ninja's fall. Using the same principle as the walk-on-water technique, shinobi could release chakra through the soles of their feet to create a cushion of air.

Tenten landed next to Chōji and peeked her head over the bushes to get a better look at the patrol the two of them had stumbled upon. A ragtag group of mercenaries clothed in similar garb as the men who had attacked them earlier stood no more than thirty yards away from where they were hidden. Even from this distance, Tenten could tell that the group was struggling. Stumbling through the dark, blind as bats and pissed off about it too. Based on the amount of noise they were making, she knew that they hadn't noticed the two ninjas yet.

 _Safe. They haven't spotted us._

"Tenten." Spoke a voice behind her.

Tenten whipped her head back at Chōji, about to scold him for breaking silence while they were a stone's throw away from the enemy. Until she realized how stupid that would be.

"You notice anything odd about that group?" He whispered.

Tenten thought about it for a moment and then sneaked another peek at the bumbling idiots.

 _It's definitely too soon for them to be the guys we took down from before. Even if they did overpower Sai and Shino, they would be heading towards their hideout. Either to store their prisoners or to deal with their wounded. These guys are walking without a purpose, just wandering around. From the looks of their clothing, they have been wandering around for days, maybe weeks, in the outdoors. Which means…_

"They're not with the group that attacked us." Tenten hissed back.

"My thoughts exactly. If I had to guess, I'd say they were once in the same group, but had a falling out."

"That's a pretty bold statement."

"Well you know. You hang out with Shikamaru enough and you start to pick up on some things."

"Don't tell me this is what you wanted to check out."

"No, this was just dumb luck. It's interesting, but not what I was looking for. That is still two hundred yards that way." Chōji whispered while pointed towards the opposite direction where the thugs were headed.

"Guys, I think I heard something!" The shinobi froze, careful not to make a sound.

"Oh blow it out your ass, Baal! We're not stopping every time you hear a squirrel!"

The two flash stepped away before anyone from the think tank got wise. They appear shorty after at the shore of a decent sized pond where the three plums of steam were coming from. At the base of the plums Tenten could spot clouds of bubbles breaking the surface of the water, like the jets in a Jacuzzi. During all of this, Chōji was kneeling next to the water's surface, his arm shifting through the algae.

"Hey Tenten, take a look at this." Chōji handed her a dead fish.

Tenten took it in her hands and gave it a thorough once over. It was a tiny little bass with glassy eyes and a sickly look about it. It was the same type of fish that Tsunade used in her evaluation of a ninja's medical potential. Tenten should know, she had failed that stupid test three times already. She could never quite control her chakra enough to use the Mystic Palm technique. That didn't mean she hadn't learned from her failures though. All those tests made her unintentionally good at spotting a fish suffering from asphyxiation.

"This fish suffocated. It literally drowned in the pond, probably because of increased levels of CO2 based on the discoloration of the fish's lips."

"I thought so. That's not all either." Chōji stuck his finger into the pond and tasted it. "There's a distinct metal taste to the water. Whatever they are pumping into water is industrial grade toxic."

"I'm sorry, did you say pumping?"

"Yeah. Back when I was in Team Asuma, we were hunting down some gang hideout in a thick jungle I can't remember the name of. Those guys were well versed in guerilla warfare and had these pipe systems that released all their smoke from cooking fires miles away from their hideouts. So we dug up the pipes and…"

No doubt for some dramatic flair, Chōji leapt to the middle of the pond and landed on top of the water's surface thanks to the walk-on-water technique. He then preformed the necessary hand signs for his clan's signature technique, the Expansion Jutsu, which he applied to his right arm, expanding it down far beyond the murky depths until he pulled out a long industrial grade pipe with a nozzle on the end.

"…it led us right to the bad guy's hideout."

 **Author's Note: I know that this was supposed to be a fic dedicated to the underappreciated characters from the Konoha 11. Even though up until this chapter, over half the chapters have been about all the other main characters from the series, making my original intention moot.**

 **Well no more.**

 **This is day one of year one. This story is gonna focus more on Copper squad now more than ever before.**

 **Unless it suits the story, in which case we will return to the side story of Gold or Silver squad. Cause they are important to the story, just not the main heroes. The thing is that the way I see it, after the war, all of Team 7's story has been told. They all achieved their goals for the most part. Their demons were faced and defeated. Nothing left to do but pair off and have a bunch of kids before moseying along into the sunset. The rest of the Konoha 11 though, they have some fleshing out to do. They aren't destined to become Hokage or Head Medic or whatever it is that Sasuke does. They gotta find their own calling that doesn't involve becoming a school teacher or a weapon's trader during peacetime. And there is no way that peacetime will come peacefully. Again, not to say that Naruto, Sakura, and Sasuke won't be involved, but the three of them are far too OP to allow for any kind of tense storyline without introducing an equally OP OC.**

 **On an updated related note, I'm gonna try my damnedest to get the 7** **th** **chapter out before classes start on September 8** **th** **. I'll be taking 18 credits this semester so it'll be a miracle if I can update the 8** **th** **chapter before Christmas break. I will have time to answer any reviews or PMs that are sent to me though. So in the long weeks ahead of me when I find myself enjoying a bit of free time those reviews will encourage me to get off my butt and type up a few sentences.**


End file.
